


Bound To The Train Tracks

by unavoidablekoishi



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Brief depiction of a failed sexual assault, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, also everyone goes by their last names except for seiko and i didn't notice until it was too late so, babbys bonding over mortal kombat B), cause for some reason it was weird calling her kimura like ?????, game references up the butt, ruruka isn't completely bashed in this, seiko is a g8m3r g1rl, shouldn't be too graphic but it's still not good
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-11 02:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 50,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12925242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidablekoishi/pseuds/unavoidablekoishi
Summary: After being rescued from a terrifying assault, Seiko and Izayoi spend an intense yet enlightening period of time together; Izayoi begins to see beyond his seemingly unwavering love for Andou but the girl he sees at the end of the tunnel isn't the one he expected.





	1. Regretful Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im just gonna come out and say it this is fucking b a d n it's hardly realistic but really, its seiko/izayoi so how realistic is it gonna be???

“P-Please let me go!”

 

It was raining heavily and the shelter of the alleyway did little to protect Seiko from the torrential downpour making it’s mark on the city. She whimpered, clenching her fists and struggling against the grip of an older man who held a fistful of her jacket. She desperately kicked her legs, silently praying the two men behind him would not join him.

 

It was all over. She was going to die. Right here and right now.

 

She trembled, pushing herself back up against the wall as her jacket was now torn from her body. The ever-heavy rain quickly soaked her thin shirt as she watched the three men step a little closer. 

 

They were going to kill her, or worse. It was all over. She should’ve taken the bus, she should’ve left earlier- she should’ve done literally anything else.

 

She let out a yelp as a hand shot out and grabbed the front of her shirt, effectively tearing it open, letting the buttons fall to the floor. The fear was evident in her voice, though she couldn’t form actual words. She braced herself, listening to the sound of the plastic buttons hitting the rain-soaked concrete.

 

She struggled, keeping a tight grip on her skirt and trying her utmost to kick her attackers anywhere where it would hurt, but to no avail. She was absolutely going to die here and now and nobody would know. Nobody would care.

 

Yelling for help did nothing. 

 

“P-Please don’t...”

 

She had nothing on her to defend herself with and there was no medicinal enhancers either. She might as well be lying in a coffin right now, being buried alive. 

 

She tore her eyes from her attackers, fixating them on the ladder in her tights, which steadily grew into a tear, before disappearing completely as her bare thighs were exposed to the freezing rain. It was so unbearably cold and the hard ground beneath her legs made the pain even worse.

 

The men were muttering something to one another and leering at her but she wasn’t listening. She didn’t want to listen. She wanted to tune everything out. She wanted it all to be over.

 

But it wasn’t over, because as one of the men roughly grabbed her wrist, causing the skin to burn painfully, she realised what was happening.

 

She struggled against the firm grip that kept her held in place, feeling the ground scrape against her bare lower back painfully. This couldn’t happen, but what could she do…?

 

But the burning touches only grew closer. Closer to her face, closer to her neck, closer to her breasts, closer to--

 

It was all over. She couldn’t do anything.

 

She quivered, having lost the energy to struggle further. Struggling was futile. They’d get what they wanted, whether she wanted it or not. Maybe if she was lucky, they’d snap her neck by accident. Maybe if she hit her head hard enough against the wall it would be over.

 

She winced as the mask was ripped from her face and an unfamiliar cold feeling spread across her lips.

 

She closed her eyes. 

 

...

 

“H-Hu-!!”

 

When she opened her eyes again, the man before her was slumped over awkwardly head-first. She shivered, but there was no more space left to back away. Her shoes scraped pitifully against the ground- her energy now gone. Why was he...?

 

And then another. The second man fell, followed closely by the third. 

 

W...Were they dead? They’d just keeled over suddenly- was this karma or the power of a merciful god? She sighed, between panting breaths. She felt so drained. So much so she just watched hopelessly as the men took what seemed to be their collective last breaths. Despite the threat being eliminated- tears still brimmed, rolling gently down her now uncovered face. It’d been a long time before she’d felt tears there.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Was that- why was he here? Why did he have to save her...? How long had he been there?

 

“Iza...yoi...?”

 

Standing above her, with an outstretched hand, was Izayoi Sonosuke, clad in his usual heavy red jacket, soaking with rain. It all made sense now. Izayoi must’ve killed those men...

 

...wait, he killed them- that can’t be-

 

“I knocked them out.”

 

He said it sullenly, as if answering Seiko’s internal question, with an expression that screamed that her assumption was plain silly, but Seiko didn’t want to be responsible for the jailing of Andou’s other half, even if it was to protect her. She didn’t want another thing to be held above her head like that.

 

She sniffled, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth instinctively. The majority of her clothes were torn beyond repair- only her skirt and jacket seemed to survive the attack, but they were crumpled and sodden. Izayoi watched silently as shivered and sobbed, not overly sure what to do to help her. Those men would most likely wake up in a while, so they had to leave and quickly.

 

He removed his jacket and placed it over Seiko’s bare shoulders. She flinched and, though the jacket was incredibly heavy, curled into it. It felt like a massive warmth spreading across her back, settling her chills.

 

“Come on. My shops not too far from here.”

 

He gently tugged at her arm as she stumbled to get up, pulling her dirt-smudged skirt as far down as it would go and snatching her jacket and mask from the ground. Pulling the jacket as far around her as she could, she followed him slowly and shakily.

 

True to his words, his shop wasn’t far at all. 

 

Seiko wiped her feet as best she could before stepping inside. It was a spacious room, lit with fluorescent lights. The walls were full of weapons of different shapes and sizes, all equally dangerous, especially in the hands of Izayoi.

 

Izayoi shut the door behind him and locked it, flipping the ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’. Seiko, although knowing full well what the Ultimate Blacksmith was capable of, was still in awe looking at the range of weapons scattered around the shop room.

 

“Up here.”

 

Seiko, still rather dazed by the collection of weapons, obediently followed Izayoi upstairs to where she assumed he lived. Wait, if he lived- oh no, Andou wasn’t here was she? She couldn’t do this- not now. She was just fine now anyway, so maybe if she just turned to leave-

 

“She’s not here. She went to some kind of confectionary convention for the weekend.”

 

Seiko tried not to sigh in relief but the degree to which Izayoi knew exactly what she was thinking was inherently alarming. Who knows what she’d say if she saw her now, though she was surprised Izayoi hadn’t accompanied her. Not that she was complaining.

 

“Andou keeps some clothes here. I don’t think she’d notice if you borrowed some.”

 

Not ‘she wouldn’t mind’. Just ‘she wouldn’t notice.’ 

 

Seiko gingerly took a seat on the sofa, uncomfortable with the feeling of the fabric on her bare body.

 

It brought tears back to her eyes which she couldn’t quite wipe away in time.

 

By the time Izayoi returned with some clothes, she was hunched over, sobbing into her knees once more. He sighed, and though he felt tempted to be exasperated by her, he knew full well how she felt. Being attacked was shitty. Those guys were shitty. He probably would’ve killed them if the repercussions were lighter. Maybe it wasn’t too late to go back...

 

“Here.”

 

He laid the pile of clothes down- consisting of one of his own shirts (despite his earlier words, Andou probably would’ve noticed if one of her shirts disappeared), an old pair of tights, should she want to wear them, and a pair of underwear he was sure Andou hadn’t worn for several months. 

 

“They’re clean.” Probably.

 

Seiko lifted her head fractionally to eye the small pile of garments, before nodding thankfully, nervously shedding the large coat. Entirely unperturbed by her lack of clothes, he took the coat and hung it up on the coat rack, before jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

 

“Bathrooms over there. Take a shower.”

 

Seiko looked mildly alarmed, but complied as she stalked over to the bathroom and shut the door, leaving Izayoi to sigh to himself.

 

Honestly, Andou would throw a fit if he told her he brought Seiko home but after being attacked like that- he was sure she would be more merciful. Maybe. Then again, he couldn’t imagine Seiko wanting this information leaving his lips. He, himself, would rather get Seiko out without Andou’s knowledge. Then they could go back to before like nothing happened. Besides, it wasn’t like he wanted her there with him. She was merely a victim of an attack who needed help- he would’ve helped anyone in that situation, but the quicker he could get her out of the house and back home, the better.

 

It sounded like a plan.

 

The sound of the shower being turned on filled his ears. Andou wouldn’t be home for another day yet so he had plenty of time. He switched on the television and collapsed onto the sofa.

 

* * *

  
  


By the time Seiko emerged from the shower, Izayoi had already ordered takeout and enough for both of them, though he didn’t do it purposely, he told himself.

 

He eyed her as she lingered by the doorway, dressed in his shirt which was far, far too large for her, and wearing her mask. 

 

“You gonna stand there all night?”

 

She decided to take a seat.

 

...

 

The television appeared to be playing some kind of esoteric game-show, which seemed a little redundant because clearly neither of them were watching it, but it did well to fill in the blanks the awkward silence left behind.

 

“Did you get hurt?”

 

Seiko looked down at the twist marks on her wrists from where she had been grabbed. She knew for a fact that her lower back was badly scraped and incredibly tender, having accidentally burnt her injuries in the shower, and the same could’ve been said for her shoulders as well. Aside from a few bruises and scratches, she was fine.

 

“I’ll be fine.”

 

“Not what I asked.”

 

She didn’t look up at him- she kept her gaze fixated on her hands as she rubbed her wrist gently. She didn’t need to look up to know he was deadass staring straight at her- seriously, what was his problem? He didn’t even like her, not after that incident.

 

Then again, he did save her...

 

“I..think I have some scrapes on my back. Aside from that, I’m fine...” She admitted, quietly, feeling the sting of the shirt against her back. 

 

Izayoi remained silent for a moment, before pulling himself up from his seat. Seiko flinched, desperately wanting to tell him that it was no problem and that she was just fine- she didn’t need his help, but--

 

He then returned with a bottle of something with a torn label, most likely an antibacterial ointment. She’d know the moment he opened the bottle. In his other hand, was a bag of cotton wool balls.

 

“Turn around.” He flicked his finger in a circular motion.

 

Seiko eyed the bottle cautiously, before shifting around. The shuffling noises indicated he’d settled the bottle and cotton wool beside her and was now knelt on the floor- “Do you mind if I lift it up slightly?”

 

Huh...?

 

Oh, he meant the shirt.

 

She fidgeted, gripping the front of the shirt tightly in her hands, but nodded. He gingerly lifted the back of the shirt upwards, revealing the harsh scrapes that littered her back. This must’ve been when she was pressed against the floor. 

 

The cold sting of ointment took Seiko by surprise, despite knowing full well what was happening. She bit down on the inside of her cheek, letting Izayoi dab ointment onto her scrapes. He was...surprisingly gentle and for a moment, Seiko wondered if this was what it was like to be Andou.

 

It was...sickening.

 

She shuddered and Izayoi recoiled slightly, wondering if he’d hurt her. Not that he cared. They may not be friends anymore, but he wasn’t about to leave her outside to get assaulted. Not happening. No way. 

 

“Think I’m done. Better?”

 

Seiko mumbled something behind her mask, but her nod was enough for Izayoi, as he returned the ointment and cotton wool to it’s rightful place in the bathroom cabinet. As he did so, there was a knock on the door.

 

He wasn’t remotely surprised to see Seiko on the other side of the room- she was probably pretty jumpy after the attack. He snatched his wallet from the coffee table and swiped a few bills from it before answering the door.

 

Seiko watched silently as Izayoi handed the money over, received his change and set the plastic bags down onto the table.

 

“Food. Hope you like takeout.” 

 

She slumped over a little, clearly a little more relaxed than before, as she returned to her seat. She knew she had nothing to be scared of now. It wasn’t like those guys followed them back here but the thought was still fresh in her mind.

 

Those noodles didn’t look too bad, actually...

 

She silently accepted a bowl handed to her by Izayoi and held it out as he shovelled noodles into it. It was weird spending time with him without Andou- it always seemed like they were glued together or something so seeing them apart was always kind of surreal.

 

And speaking of being together, did they live here together? He mentioned Andou having clothes here, but it was in a manner that suggested they didn’t permanently live together. What’s with that?

 

“Do you want the couch or the bed?”

 

“Um...neither? I’ll- I can just go home after this...” She hung her head over her bowl of noodles, slowly placing a few vegetables into her mouth. Izayoi grunted. “Don’t be stupid. Stay the night- you can go home in the morning. It’s safer.”

 

Well...there was no arguing with that logic, right?

 

“Um...couch is fine.” Not the bed, please. Not after Andou had been in it.

 

“Alright. There’s some spare blankets in my room you can use. It’s not too uncomfortable.”

 

“...thanks.”

 

“S’fine...”

 

The next ten minutes were occupied by silent eating with television noise in the background. Not the worst situation Seiko had been in tonight, clearly, but it was still uneasy. By the time she was finished, she just wanted to leave.

 

Though going back out seemed a little scary. What if those men had woken up? She wondered just what they were doing right about now.

 

“Don’t think about ‘em. They won’t think about touching another girl again.” He assured, quietly, leaving Seiko to wonder if she was really that easy to read.

 

“Well...not if I have anything to say about it.” He smirked.

 

Oh. 

 

Seiko’s eyes darted downwards to her hands. Now she knew what Andou saw in him. When he wasn’t trailing behind her like a dog, he was actually kinda...cute. In a gentlemanly way.

 

Oh, but no. That wasn’t a thought that needed to be thought about. Time to leave.

 

But she couldn’t leave, could she? Of course not- life was not working in her favour- not now, not ever. She huffed, quietly, pulling the mask further up lest Izayoi saw how red her cheeks were.

 

Instead, she decided to get up and inspect the wall next to the television, which was full of all kinds of weapons, carefully mounted high up. Izayoi watched her, clearly perplexed, before shrugging. Everything he made was high-quality and awesome- how could she not want to see.

 

...

 

He could do with some of Andou’s sweets right about now. He wondered if she was doing okay. Maybe he should give her a call.

 

Meanwhile, Seiko was desperately trying to kill time looking at each weapon as slowly as humanly possible. A lot of them were very ninja-esque, things like kunai and shuriken, but there were a few dangerous looking swords and- oh my god- could it be--?

 

“Is that...” She pointed to the corner, where several clearly unorthodox looking weapons were propped up. Izayoi raised an eyebrow in confusion- those were his own personal stash of weapons, most of which weren’t accessible to public eye.

 

“Is that the Fierce Deity sword from Zelda?!”

 

Her voice was laced with mild glee as she knelt down to inspect what was, indeed, the Fierce Deity sword. Izayoi was momentarily surprised that Seiko actually knew what it was from- Andou wasn’t really well-versed when it came to video-games. It wasn’t a hobby they shared, but that didn’t stop her from curling up under his arm while he played.

 

“Yeah, it is. Made it a few months ago.”

 

Seiko very gently pried the sword from the wall to inspect it further- it was truly a complex design, “How did you make it?”

 

“I got the two bits of metal and forged them together at the bottom there.” He got up and gestured towards the hilt, where the metal was, as he said, forged together.

 

“Then I twisted it around and welded it at the top and the middle. Tricky job twisting it, but I’m not the Ultimate Blacksmith for nothing.” He smiled to himself. Seiko looked up at him, taking in his reaction for longer than she needed to, before going back to the sword.

 

“Have you made any other swords like this?”

 

“Already made the Master Sword. Over there.”

 

It took very little time for Seiko to dash over and fawn over the well-crafted replica, again to Izayoi’s surprise. He’d known her for years and years and not once did she mention she played Zelda...or any other kind of video game for that matter. Well, that was the past, and not the present. It didn’t matter to him.

 

“It’s so detailed...” She muttered to herself, now thoroughly wrapped up in the incredible swords. She didn’t normally confess to playing video games, but...she absolutely played video games. 

 

“Have you made any other swords from Zelda?”

 

“Mm...” Izayoi checked the stack of swords. “Nah, those two are the only ones. I do have the Fusion Sword from Final Fantasy amongst others.” 

 

“Seriously?”

 

Her attention was all over the place, switching from one sword to another and she was sure if she wasn’t busy fawning over these swords, she’d be absolutely embarrassed by her behaviour, but holy crap- these weapons were incredible! They looked true to their fictional counterparts and twice as deadly, not to mention incredibly heavy.

 

“That’s so cool, I-- is that the Great Knife from Silent Hill?”

 

“H-huh...yeah- yeah, it is. I made this a couple of years ago after watching the movie.” He left out that fact Andou didn’t like it for a reason he, himself, didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to force her to watch a movie she didn’t like. Meanwhile, he was just relieved Seiko was now temporarily distracted and not trembling in the corner like an abused puppy.

 

“Do you just make swords? Um...I mean- I know you make all sorts but...is there anything you really can’t make?”

 

“I can make just about anything provided I have the materials. Why- you got something in mind?” He raised an eyebrow.

 

Seiko suddenly shied away, shrinking down into Izayoi’s oversized shirt. “Mm...maybe...it’s nothing, really.” Her tone was quieter now, as she took the Great Knife and inspected it slowly, mumbling under her breath. Izayoi watched her do so, feeling a rise of impatience. It wasn’t like he was dying to hear what she had to say, but if she was about to propose a challenge, he was more than willing to comply.

 

“Nah, go on. I wanna hear.”

 

Her eyes narrow, but she complied.

 

“Well...first I though about the Giant’s Knife from Ocarina of Time, after seeing the Master Sword, and then...and then...mm..” She was clearly embarrassed, now very aware of how much she was rambling, she couldn’t remember a time where she talked so much and neither could Izayoi.

 

“Then?”

 

“Um...do you play Mortal Kombat by any chance?”

 

Izayoi had to physically restrain himself from speaking suddenly, because goddamn he hasn’t met somebody who plays Mortal Kombat in fucking forever. His usually strong contempt for Seiko due to the past seemed to waver for a moment in favour of his favourite game series.

 

“Yeah, it’s a pretty cool franchise.”

 

Complete understatement, but whatever, he thought, ignoring the fact he could see about five games from the franchise tucked away on the shelf under the television.

 

Seiko appeared to smile slightly from under her mask, before carefully placing the knife down against the stack. This might’ve been the first time she’d talked about video games to anyone before and though she knew she was in no position to make any request, especially to Izayoi... well, it wasn’t like she even liked him but it was a little late for that now.

 

“Could you...would you be able to make Kabal’s Hookswords? He’s my favourite character and I always thought they’d look cool.”

 

For a moment Izayoi was somewhat stunned.

 

It’d been so long since he’d played Mortal Kombat with somebody who actually knew the franchise. He’d played with Andou several times, having turned off the blood effects first, but Andou usually played Mileena and there was little variation from that. She wasn’t too bad at it, actually, but she eventually found it boring.

 

“Course I can.” He kicked himself for not thinking about making them earlier- they were an interesting style of weapon, initially originating from China, unless he was mistaken. He couldn’t deny it was a good choice, but he was surprised Seiko had opted to have him as a favourite...didn’t girls generally go for girl characters? Or was that just his experience with girls? 

 

“That sounds cool...” Seiko responded quietly, bashfully but the smile on her face was evident.

 

“Didn’t think Kabal would be your favourite, though...” Izayoi commented, kneeling down beside her to sort through a few of the swords. What metal would work best for the Hookswords? Steel, most likely. Seiko watched him patiently.

 

“I say favourite...he’s the one I play the best.”

 

“Then who is?” He wasn’t one for favourite characters, but it was surprising how much you could tell about a person from what character they admired.

 

“Mm...I really liked Sindel as a kid.” Somehow that wasn’t remotely surprising. They kind of looked alike, or at least he thought so. It was probably the hair, but the idea of Seiko with ridiculously long, fuck-off hair was more than strange.

 

For a moment, he remembered just how strange the situation really was. There was no way he was going to forgive Seiko for the bombing incident back at Hope’s Peak, not a chance in hell, and he would do absolutely anything to keep Andou away from her…but somehow…

 

...watching Seiko fawn over the video-game weapons with sparkles in her eyes was...nice. 

 

Almost cute.

 

“I’ll see what I can do.” Izayoi, pushing the swords back up into the stack. “Hookswords shouldn’t be hard- they’ve got the shape of a crowbar...”

 

“Crowbars with handles....it seems redundant somehow.” Seiko responded with a tiny, tiny hint of amusement in her voice. It wasn’t exactly funny to him, but at least she wasn’t shaking in the corner of the room.

 

“Bit sharper than crowbars...not to mention much thinner and...nah, it shouldn’t be hard at all. I’ll start tomorrow.”

 

Seiko looked suddenly alarmed. “That...early? Aren’t you busy?” Her voice lowered in pitch as she curled a pale lock of hair around her finger. He may have been the Ultimate Blacksmith but it didn’t mean he was constantly swamped with work- especially with Andou gone.

 

“Nope.” Izayoi stood up, but the slight hop in his step reminded him that it was Seiko, and he scowled. “But don’t think I’m doing this for you- just so happens I quite like the Hookswords and I need a new project.”

 

Ah, of course. Seiko shifted her head to look back down at her pale feet. Seems, even though he’d been kind enough to help her and give her a safe bed for the night, he didn’t like her. That was to be expected- she didn’t like him either.

 

“Hope it turns out well.” She murmured, without much else to say. She decided to stay sat by the swords, facing the wall and pretending to be utterly enthralled in them.

 

Seiko was half tempted to explain what really happened on the day of the exams, but knew full well he would not listen and disregard her explanation as a mere excuse. Her mind wandered back to the strange, white haired boy who was truly responsible for what she could only describe as a life-ruining, complete and utter fuckup.

 

She just wanted to help Andou...so why did it turn out like this? Why was she forced to take the blame when it was so clearly that white-haired bastard? Though it was only years after the incident did she, herself, make the connection.

 

After being friends for so long...and Andou was willing to brand her as a traitor without another word. She should’ve guessed- she should’ve known all along.

 

She rested her head onto her knees, letting her pale white curls droop around her face. Now she was stuck in an apartment with her nemesis’ lapdog of a boyfriend and his extensive and varied multiple means of murder and whilst they were incredible to look at, she knew Izayoi wouldn’t hesitate to use them if it were Andou’s wish.

 

“Are you going to sit in the corner all night or finish your food?”

 

Seiko didn’t want to turn around. She was more than happy to sulk in the corner with tears in the corners of her eyes, thank you very much.

 

“In a minute.” Was her flat reply. Izayoi sighed silently, but tucked back into his food. If she wanted to sit in the corner, it was no skin off his nose.

 

…

 

“You’ll get sick if you don’t eat. I don’t want you puking in my apartment.” He spoke around his mouthful of food, deciding to leave out the part that she’d already been through enough this evening without any more unpleasantness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a discord for my works amongst other things so https://discord.gg/jQfGW8Z


	2. Eloping By Yourself

Izayoi had dragged out a multitude of blankets from the cupboard in his bedroom for Seiko to use that night. He dumped them unceremoniously on the couch with a grunt, as Seiko slowly finished her bowl of food.

 

“Glasses are in the top cupboard if you want water.” He said sullenly, switching off all the lamps. Seiko mumbled a quiet thanks, shifting over onto her side on the sofa and pulling one of the blankets over herself.

 

“Night.”

 

“...night.”

 

Seiko braced herself, waiting for a click, followed by a cover of impenetrable darkness. She, herself, wasn’t fond of the darkness, having been used to working under flickering, blinding fluorescent lights and sleeping with the lamps on. It wasn’t that she was scared of the dark, per se, but it wasn’t always enjoyable.

 

She listened carefully for the quiet sounds of Izayoi undressing and slipping into bed and finally, the apartment was plunged into silence and darkness.

 

She raised her knees to her chest, gently running her slim fingers between her toes in an effort to warm her feet up, as she closed her eyes.

 

At the time, all she wanted to do was drift off into a quick, dreamless sleep, so she could wake up the next morning and get out of here, but it was only when she woke back up two hours later with a sharp cry did she regret falling asleep.

 

She bolted upright, almost falling from the sofa in the process, as she ran her hands up and down her body in an attempt to rid the feeling of being touched by unknown hands. Her stomach churned painfully and her legs quivered as she hurriedly wiped hot tears from her cheeks with short breaths.

 

In the end, wiping them away was futile, as two minutes later, the floodgates opened and she broke down into tears. She desperately attempted to smother them into one of the couch cushions, hoping her earlier screech hadn’t woken up Izayoi, though from the looks of him, he didn’t seem like a deep sleeper.

 

She shivered, clutching her shoulders and pressing her face into the pillow, breathing shakily and silently thanking the heavens that the earlier incident hadn’t progressed further. She was still in one piece and remained relatively unharmed, but the more she thought about it, the more terrified she became.

 

Things like this were a real thing that happened to real people in this world and the whole time, Seiko had gone about as the rest of the world does, thinking it’ll be anyone but her when in actuality, she was just as much in danger as anyone else. Such a thought was utterly despairing.

 

At this point, Seiko was inclined to believe her life had become nothing more than one misfortune after another and would continue to be so until the day she died.

 

“Seiko?”

 

The sound of another voice startled her, and in attempt to shut herself up, Seiko accidentally choked on a glob of spit. She coughed hard and spluttered into the pillow. 

 

“S-Sorry...I didn’t mean to wake you up…” She whispered, barely audible, into the pillow, as if the pillows protection would hide what was already so obvious to the man standing behind her.

 

Izayoi wasn’t...really used to these kinds of situations. “Need any water?” He offered, rather unhelpfully as Seiko refused quietly. 

 

Course, he’d been there for Andou in the past when she burst into tears, but this was different. Andou was happy to be smothered with affection and treated like a princess until she felt better- and Izayoi was more than willing to treat her like that all the time- but this was Seiko. He couldn’t offer affection or treat her like a princess and the circumstances were far different. Whatever little spat or upset Andou had in the past didn’t really compare to the way Seiko shivered and sobbed.

 

Even an idiot could tell she was terrified and he couldn’t blame her in the slightest.

 

He switched on the lamp in the corner of the room, and flicked on the TV, lowering the volume to near silence. He couldn’t speak for anybody else, but TV noise seemed to make the place seem less lonely and threatening in times of stress and terror.

 

He gingerly took a seat beside her. “Do you need anything?” He asked, rather lamely, in fact. Seiko shook her head, hiccuping between mild convulsions and for a moment, Izayoi felt incredibly helpless.

 

It was no secret he didn’t like Seiko, not after what happened at Hope’s Peak, and he sure as hell wasn’t letting her harm Andou in any way, but there was no enjoyment in seeing her like this. It just left a cold, hard feeling in his gut.

 

He didn’t like it. Not one bit.

 

“I’m sorry...about what happened. If I knew what was going on, I would’ve come earlier.” He said, lowly, because it wasn’t a lie, he would’ve done that, whether it was Seiko or not. Nobody deserves that kind of utter horror in their lives except those men from earlier. See how they liked being attacked. Dickheads…

 

Though it was certainly a predicament he’d found himself in. 

 

In the background, murmurings of a late night gambling show could barely be heard but it seemed like Seiko had calmed down for the time being. He needed to provide her with some sort of distraction…

 

“Guess you don’t wanna go back to sleep, huh.”

 

Her silence was clear ‘no’.

 

Well...he’d slept in late that day, without Andou around to wake him up, so he wasn’t overly exhausted. Maybe staying up for a bit wouldn’t be such a bad idea but the TV would stop showing programs for the night in about half an hour. Even if Seiko was a little strange, it wasn’t like she’d enjoy staring at static for hours on end.

 

Well...there was nothing else for it.

 

“Do...you want to play some Mortal Kombat?”

 

She’d since stopped shivering, but was still deadly silent, however the way she attempted to meet his eyes suggested she was up for it.

 

Izayoi scrambled from the sofa and over to the TV to hook up his slightly aged PS2. Whilst he enjoyed video games, he wasn’t one to waste money on every new games console that came out.

 

He switched the TV to the correct setting and, taking the two controllers, sat back on the sofa beside Seiko, who had swivelled around to face the screen, silent but ready to play. He handed her the controller, and she took it shakily, feeling a slight warmth from it.

 

“We’re playing Deception. That alright?” 

 

She hummed in agreement, twisting the joysticks habitually as Izayoi clicked through the start menu and into a regular co-op mode. 

 

Seiko instinctively chose Kabal, not to any surprise, whilst Izayoi chose Baraka. The screen flickered to the arena selection screen, which Izayoi clicked through with boredom.

 

“Do you want any water or tea?” He asked, staring blankly at the loading screen. Seiko made an odd noise of uncertainty, before politely refusing.

 

Finally, the loading screen went dark, before revealing the stage and characters. Izayoi wasn’t expecting any serious competition, but the moment the fight started, he found himself with already half a bar of health. 

 

Within seconds, he found himself in front of a Game Over screen, with Seiko as the victor. Despite being puffy-eyed and exhausted, Seiko had still managed to beat him in record time.

 

“Not bad.” He murmured quietly, selecting the retry option, “Want to go again?” Seiko nodded, pressing her face into her knees and Izayoi pressed the button, reloading the arena once more.

 

Again.

 

He lost again.

 

He furiously hit the retry button once more, adamant to win. Whilst he had a naturally cool and calm demeanour, there was no doubt he had a competitive streak when it came to things he enjoyed. He wasn’t about to lose, and to Seiko of all people.

 

Seiko eyed him nervously, she knew she was good but she didn’t want to upset him. Maybe she’d throw this match, after all she was just a guest.

 

“Don’t even think about going easy on me. Make it a fair fight.”

 

Seiko looked away, eyes wide and feeling stupid for even thinking of such an idea. There was no way Izayoi would accept an easy win, but it seemed like Izayoi was now doing his damndest to win.

 

She sat up a little in her seat, readying herself for the next match.

 

Twenty-six times Izayoi had lost to Seiko, until the very end of the twenty-seventh match, when both of their health bars were down to mere pixels--

 

“YES!”

 

Seiko let out a small sigh, having finally been beaten, but watched with a half-smile as Izayoi fell back on the sofa heavily, dropping his controller in the process. He gave a loud, satisfactory groan, stretching out his stiff limbs, before sitting upright and regaining his composure.

 

It was always kind of amusing to see these odd little quirks of his that completely betrayed his stoic outward image. He always acted like such a cool tough guy, but it was the little things that got him, like earning a well-deserved victory and Andou’s sweets.

 

What a ruined train of thought…

 

“You finally beat me.” Seiko murmured, quiet but somewhat cheerful for his victory. Izayoi nodded, now recovered from his momentary lapse of character. “Wanna play with different characters this time?”

 

“Sure.” 

 

This time Izayoi chose Scorpion, an old favourite, and Seiko, Ermac, who was also apparently an old favourite.

 

Izayoi liked to think he’d gotten much better at this game, especially considering how it only took fourteen losses, four of which were flawless victories for Seiko, until he finally won.

 

“You really are good at this.” He complimented, nonchalantly, but it wasn’t because he was being kind. It was just fact, Seiko was ridiculously good.

 

“There are better people...I’ve watched huge tournaments play off between people who are real pros at this game.” She shrugged off the compliment smoothly, but smiled fondly, remembering being heavily obsessed with the game when she was much younger.

 

“You could probably make that if you tried hard enough.” 

 

“As if.” 

 

She felt her own stomach drop at how blunt and flat her response was, sounding almost rude and she didn’t want to be rude to the man who could’ve potentially saved her life. As if to cover up the retort, she furiously hit the retry button and the match began once more.

 

“The only person stopping you is you.” Izayoi replied calmly, having been beaten by Seiko who was, admittedly, button-mashing that time around out of nerves.

 

“You say that…” She began, trailing off into unsure silence. Izayoi glanced over at her, with a look that could only be considered as mildly threatening. She didn’t necessarily like opposing people, but she knew damn well what he said wasn’t always applicable, especially not in her circumstance.

 

“Might be true for other people.” She finally finished, hitting the retry button, which was the only tiny barrier she could erect between her and Izayoi- without that she felt more compelled to throw herself from his second-story window.

 

“You’re just proving my point.” He said, eyes narrowed as he directed his attention towards the TV screen. Seiko’s grip tightened around the controller. “I’m not. I don’t stop myself- everyone else does…” She grimaced from under her mask, resisting the urge to bite her lips.

 

“That just sounds like you’re blaming people. Take responsibility for your own actions.”

 

Seiko had never expected such a sentence to send nothing but pure, unadulterated rage coursing through her veins. Her grip became so tight she almost lurched forwards and hurled the controller through the TV screen, but doing so would forever cement her as some kind of psycho and that, she could not have.

 

Instead, she channelled her anger into beating Izayoi flawlessly eight times in a row.

 

Izayoi looked over after the eighth match, now aware Seiko was huffing heavily behind her mask with deeply furrowed eyebrows. Seiko wasn’t really one for extreme, violent anger, or so he thought, so seeing her look so silently furious was really off-putting.

 

Before he could begin his sentence he was cut off, “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“It was advice. You’re not obliged to take it but there’s no need to get defensive.” He didn’t even know why he tried, the girl was beyond help by now, but to his surprise, Seiko sat back, eyes innocently wide and with a now perfectly calm expression.

 

“Yeah, you’re right, but I guess you wouldn’t like to have to take responsibility for something you didn’t do, would you?” Her voice was sickeningly airy and light as she hit the retry button once more- playing wasn’t even fun anymore, it was just a means to keep her fingers busy so she might not have to talk.

 

“Are you talking about that bombing inci-”

 

“No.”

 

In the process of being shot down, Izayoi knew full well it was exactly what she was talking about. In fact, they’d never discussed it since they were expelled. Hell, they’d barely seen anything of each other since expulsion, having blamed each other and gone their separate ways.

 

In his eyes, he’d preferred that much.

 

“You had something to do with that incident, I know you did.”

 

Seiko threw her controller down, almost disappointed that she hadn’t taken the plunge and sabotaged his TV. “You were involved the same way I was. Shitty circumstances.”

 

“Don’t boil this down to circumstance- you were the one who turned up with a fucking bomb in your bag.”

 

“That wasn’t my bag! It belonged to that...creepy white-haired guy who asked me for the laxatives.” She sighed heavily, fuming at the repeat accusation. Izayoi opened his mouth to retort wildly but stopped for a moment.

 

“That guy who was in your store cupboard? That weirdo?”

 

“Yes, that weirdo! I’m telling you, he came in looking for laxatives and must’ve grabbed what...she wanted.” She could barely say her name now, as she turned away to stare hard at the floor, expecting Izayoi to fight back.

 

“How the hell did the laxatives end up in Ruruka’s exam then?”

 

“Because she put them in there, are you so damn dense? They looked exactly the same!” She held her arms out wide, emphasising her point and trying to reason with him. “They got mixed up because that weirdo grabbed the wrong jar! I had nothing to do with it.”

 

Izayoi opened his mouth once more to pose a question but instead was, once more, ruthlessly cut through by Seiko.

 

“Actually, I did have something to do with it. I was just trying to be nice and to help you- that’s what I do! I help people! I try to!” Her voice was now laced with desperation as she pulled down her mask to talk better, “I wanted her to do well in her exam, even at the risk of my own place in the academy and you know that! You have to!”

 

Izayoi was unsure of how to respond at that point in time, he knew full well Seiko had adored Andou as they grew up together but it all changed and suddenly, Seiko had become the enemy.

 

“Why would I try and sabotage her exam? And why would I try to bomb the school?! I’m telling you, it was that white-haired guy!” She stood up, pointing outside to wherever he may have been lurking at that time.

 

“There’s no concrete proof of that.” He responded, lowly. He didn’t want to believe Seiko was right- she was the reason Andou failed her exam, the reason they were all where they were now. It had to be...besides which, he knew nothing about that white-haired guy or why he would bomb the school.

 

“No...but you can’t deny the laxatives were an accident, can you?”

 

He had to admit, it was incredibly unlikely. He’d seen that guy walk out with a jar in his hands and even if he had a great dislike and distrust for Seiko, she wouldn’t screw Andou over after offering her help.

 

Seiko just liked to help.

 

But that got them in this mess…

 

“It doesn’t matter now.” He said, coolly, but with force. “It’s not like it would get us back to Hope’s Peak.” He spoke with bitterness, as if reliving the moment he stepped out of the gates of Hope’s Peak with Andou, cursing Seiko.

 

“T-That’s…! That’s not even the point!! I’m not talking about going back to Hope’s Peak!! I’m talking about the fact you two wrongfully accused me!! And after all the help I gave you!”

 

She darted out from between the table and the couch to furiously pace back and forth. “I did everything to make her happy! I just wanted to be friends and the moment this happens you both betray me! You’re both traitors!”

 

He stood up, face steely and unbelieving. “What happened put Ruruka at risk- if you put legible fucking labels on your shit this wouldn’t have happened!”

 

“I was nice enough to help you in the first place! My projects aren’t for you to read, they’re for me to read! At the very least you could’ve asked!” She yelled, borderline hysterical and almost burning a hole in the carpet at the pace she was pacing.

 

“Why are you screaming at me now? I don’t give a damn about gratitude but at the very least keep it down.” He scowled and Seiko gave a choked laugh, almost biting her tongue. “That’s real rich- you talk about taking responsibility but your traitorous girlfriend can’t take responsibility for cheating, letting alone not being able to check a fucking label!!”

 

“Don’t talk about Ruruka like that!” He snapped, stancing himself as if he were to attack her, because that was the final straw. They could eat takeout and play videogames together but the moment anyone talked shit about Andou, they were dead.

 

“Fine! You-- you’re both the same!” She shrieked, now unable to form any other coherent sentence. The finality of her words were startling, but what was more so was watching Seiko bolt from the room, wearing nothing but a face-mask and one of Izayoi’s shirts, barrel downstairs and run out of the building.

 

Izayoi was torn, he clenched his fists tightly, repressing the urge to hit something- anything, but all that happened was his fingernails made dents in his hands. Jesus fucking Christ, that infuriated him. Seiko was damn lucky Andou wasn’t around otherwise she’d probably find herself at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck.

 

He angrily switched the television off, slammed the door and stalked back to bed.

 

If Seiko wanted to storm out like a child, then so be it. He didn’t want her around to begin with, let alone if she was going to talk shit about Andou. If she’d labelled her damn things properly, Andou wouldn’t have made such an easy mistake.

 

Plus, it was stupid to go giving her stuff away willy-nilly to complete strangers who may-or-may not be planning a bomb attack. It was stupid to turn up to Andou’s exam like that, it was stupid to throw the blame around and it was stupid to run off into the night half-dressed and in tears.

 

…

 

He had to find her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the fact i really like writing this fic massively overpowers the fact it makes no fucking sense- also some of the facts are like....a bit wonky cause they don't match up perfectly to the dr3 anime but really, who the fuck watches dr3 anymore???


	3. Cold Nights, Colder Beds.

He launched out of bed, grabbed a pair of grimy sandals, the house keys and almost cleared the stairs in a flying leap before leaving the shop.

 

This was all so stupid. After everything that had happened, he still couldn’t stand Seiko without a doubt, not when she’d been such a risk to Andou, but he couldn’t let her run around at night. Not after what had happened.

 

The night, or early morning, felt surreal. Completely empty, completely quiet and near pitch black if not for the flickering streetlamps that were few and far between. Where the hell would she go now, at this time? If she lived where she lived back in Hope’s Peak then there’s no way she could walk that far. Then again, the chance of her coherently thinking of a place to go now was incredibly slim.

 

He growled, feeling his skin grow cold at the contact with the bitter night air. At this rate, she was going to get attacked again and he wasn’t having that on his conscience.

 

“Seiko!” He yelled. “Seiko!”

 

He broke out into a sprint, down the main road a little ways from his shop. It was a bigger area to cover and he severely doubted Seiko would go traipsing down an alley at 3am.

 

To his relief, but not delight, he could see her staggering in a half run a hundred metres away, to which he broke into a breathless run. Best not to yell her name, in case she starts running too. 

 

As he grew closer, his laboured pants became clear to Seiko, and she span around in alarm. “W-Why are you following me!?” She screeched, backing away, but rubbing her arms fiercely to obtain heat. Izayoi let out a deep breath. “Don’t...don’t run away now. That’s just stupid.”

 

“As stupid as not labelling my projects? As stupid as letting Andou go through my stuff? As stupid as trusting the both of you!?” She raised an outstretched finger. “Why didn’t you just leave me earlier on?!”

 

“Why would I do that?! I wouldn’t do that to anybody!” He snapped back. “Just come back to the shop. You can leave in the morning!”

 

“But why come after me?! You always hated me!!” She recoiled, as if threatening to run away. “I didn’t always hate you.” Izayoi growled, “But that fuckup back at school shot everything to shit!”

 

“That wasn’t my fault!! You didn’t even listen to me!”

 

“She didn’t want to hear it and neither did I. You can’t deny you were involved!”

 

Seiko reached up to grab two clumps of hair, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. “I didn’t know about it! It was totally unwilling!!” That idiot white-headed bastard- this was all his fault. Did he do this on purpose?

 

“Look-- it doesn’t matter. Just come back with me and you can leave as early as you like. It’s just not safe out at night, especially while you’re dressed like that.” Or not dressed at all, in his opinion. To be fair, he should’ve given her a little more in the ways of garments. She looked freezing.

 

“Y-You don’t even want me around, why should you care if I’m safe or not? You hate me, remember?” As if, during all the time spent playing video games, he forgot. He didn’t want to admit that might’ve actually been the case.

 

“It’s not about the fact it’s you. I’d do this for anybody.” He reasoned, but in retrospect that probably wasn’t a reassuring thing to say to her. She clenched her already stark-white fists; he could hear her brace-lined teeth chattering furiously, so much so he thought they might chip.

 

“Then do it for someone else!”

 

With that, she turned to storm away until Izayoi shot out and grabbed her arm roughly, though he didn’t expect her to scream so suddenly. For a moment, he wondered why she wasn’t struggling until she fell limp to the floor.

 

It was only then did he realise, shit, why would that be a good idea?! After everything that happened, he decided to grab her arm like that. He furiously muttered a string of curses, letting go of Seiko and letting her keel over. What was he supposed to do now?

 

Whilst he wasn’t one to panic, he had no clue what to do. She wasn’t running away anymore- just crying, shouting and drowning in pure terror. He’d made a stupid mistake and he cursed himself for it. 

 

But there was no time for momentary self-loathing. The street was no place for this- he leant down and quickly scooped up Seiko in his arms, before breaking out into a mad dash back home. Hopefully this position would be far less painful and stressful for her for the time being until they returned to his shop, and then they could actually get things somewhat sorted.

 

He almost tripped over the curb, sending them both flying. Getting things sorted was wishful thinking at best, she was hysterical as it was and deep-down, beyond his loyalty to Andou and his previous distrust and dislike for her, he couldn’t blame her in the slightest.

 

As he struggled to open the door, he wondered where that weird white-haired prick was now? Was he even aware of the damage he’d done, just by taking the wrong jar?

 

He carefully shut the door behind him and, with the very little energy he had left, dashed up the stairs. His lungs burned with the cold air from outside and Seiko was shivering uncontrollably. 

 

He set her down on his bed instead; she curled up instinctively and whimpered, as he laid his duvet out over her and, for extra warmth, he grabbed the blankets she’d been using on the couch and laid them over her as well.

 

It was now he could finally take a breath and he almost toppled to the floor in doing so. That was one hell of a run home in the freezing cold. He needed a drink.

 

He stumbled over to the small kitchen and filled a glass with cold water that felt disgustingly warm in his mouth compared to the bitterness of outside. Whilst gulping down the water, he grabbed another glass and filled it up, for Seiko.

 

As he staggered back to his room, Seiko was now comfortably curled up in bed. She seemed much calmer now, possibly even asleep…?

 

He pulled the duvet back a fraction to check- her eyes were shut tightly and her hair fell loosely across her face but she could’ve just been ignoring him. He watched her for a few moments, before deciding she’d probably sleep better without the mask; he carefully maneuvered the mask off her face and placed it on the bedside table along with the glass of water.

 

Her cheeks were still stained with tears, he noticed, as he rested against the headboard. His friendship with Seiko in the past was odd, considering it only stemmed from Andou’s friendship with her. Back then, she seemed so desperate to do anything for Andou, like a lost puppy. 

 

He always remembered fondly how nice Andou was to her back then. Seiko was lucky that Andou had seen the good in her, because she didn’t open her heart to just anybody. Then the destruction of their relationship had turned them against each other and he couldn’t forgive how coldly she had glared at Andou that day.

 

He was struck out of his thoughts by a low whine from Seiko, as she shifted onto her back, covering her mouth with her hand.

 

“Um. Do you need something?” He asked, watched her creased expression as she groaned again.

 

“I...I need my medicine. I left it at home…” She replied lowly from behind her hand. It was a little late now to go out on an excursion to find some medicine, “Do you need it right now? Are you gonna die without it?”

 

Seiko sniffed, “Probably not…” She could go a night without it- it wasn’t exactly ideal but it was doable. She didn’t like skipping out on her medicine, it ruined her entire schedule. She had a specific way she liked to do things, and straying from that pattern made her feel uneasy and out of control.

 

“I didn’t know you had to take medicine.” He commented, seemingly innocently, as he settled his empty glass on the bedside table beside him. Seiko scowled from under her hand. “Of course you didn’t.” She snapped, weakly, “because you never listened to me when I said so.”

 

He rubbed his eyes roughly, turning back to her with some amount of confusion, which only served to aggravate her more, yet she looked distinctly upset. “Why...why else did I refuse... _ her _ sweets? I tried to tell you both, I can’t eat sugary things both because of my braces and because of my medicine.”

 

At that point, Izayoi had to decency to act somewhat ashamed. It always irked him how Seiko refused every gift Andou tried to give her. Andou was the sweetest girl in the world, both metaphorically and literally, and she didn’t like it when her gifts were rejected and, by extension, neither did he. 

 

But this was the first he’d heard for himself her reasoning to refuse- or at the very least, the first he could remember. He wondered if Andou actually knew about this- as in seriously understood and hadn’t shrugged it off because she felt hurt. He’d automatically sided with Andou because, in their defense, her confections were godly. The best he’d ever tasted and probably ever would taste and at the time, it must’ve felt like Seiko was simply dismissing what Andou held closest to her heart.

 

“I...tried to make it up to her…” Seiko mumbled behind her hand. “I wanted to...but I couldn’t. You never listened to me…”

 

He had nothing to say to that. He stared out of the window to his left, that overlooked the front of the shop and the street in front of it. He’d always felt their friendship was just a side to Andou and Seiko’s, which seemed to be stronger but it was the first time he’d been around Seiko like this without Andou.

 

“I don’t think she meant it…” He began, “You know how she feels about what she does. She just wanted you to try something she made for you.” To him, that sounded blameless. Andou really was a nice girl at heart, no matter what anybody else said.

 

“It’s not about whether or not she meant it. She never...she never understood how serious it was. It just felt like she was using me…” She thought back to the incident that led to where they were now. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to help so much…

 

“Ruruka would never do that.” He shot back, defensively, “She doesn’t hate you like you think she does.” Or at least, that’s what he thought. Perhaps that was wishful thinking.

 

“But you both...you both blamed me for the incident.” She sat up, still covering her mouth with one hand, “If you were my friends you would’ve listened to me! I didn’t mix up those jars!”

 

“Maybe you should explain it to her again...I think she’d listen to you.” He responded coolly. Sure, it might be a shock to her at first seeing Seiko in the living room when she returned home, but if he explained it to her, after a while he was sure she would agree to it.

 

“I-It’s too late for that.” She said, sullenly. “She should’ve listened to me to begin with. I-I did everything for her just to make up for the fact I couldn’t eat her damn sweets, only for you both to turn against me...that’s not a friendship.”

 

“Then what is it you want?” He snapped, “You talk like you want something to be done out of this, but you’re making no moves to solve it.”

 

“I shouldn’t have to be prompted to solve a misunderstanding you two created. If she really trusted me she would’ve known it was a mistake and that I had nothing to do with it!”

 

He sighed. “She was just upset because of how things played out. When you panic, you start being reckless and making accusations.” He crossed his arms, slouching further against the headboard.

 

“You didn’t know about it either. The two of you just...seemed to mutually decide it was my fault. Maybe if you had a longer leash you’d have been able to realise it wasn’t even my fault. Then you could’ve explained it to her- she’d listen to you at least.”

 

“I don’t think she’d have wanted to listen back then. She was just mad and she wanted someone to be mad at.”

 

“Just stop justifying every single thing she does! She’s not some kind of perfect princess- you know damn well she didn’t listen to me back then and you didn’t say a thing!” She shot back, growing agitated once more.

 

“What kind of boyfriend would I be if all I did was point out her flaws and reprimand her- she’s only human. She just wants to be happy.” He reasoned, but his voice was borderline dangerous.

 

“You’d be a fucking incompetent one, that’s what.” Seiko snapped, harsher than Izayoi could’ve pinned her down for, “Relationships are difficult and the growth of it is dependant on the both of you talking and solving your own flaws. I’m not telling you to reprimand her, but if you can’t tell her to her face what she does wrong then you’re just following her around without holding up your end of the relationship.”

 

He opened his mouth to respond, rather indignant at the accusation until Seiko interrupted, “I’m sure on an outward level you’re a good boyfriend.” She said, calmer than before, “but there’s more to love than just being nice and showering her with praise. Your relationship just seems mediocre.”

 

“I’ve been with her since we were kids, we grew up together. You can’t come in and say our relationship is mediocre.” He growled.

 

“Well I can, and I did.” She raised an eyebrow. “Besides which, I’d assume the problem is that she can’t take a criticism well and if it comes from you..that would make it ten times worse. You can’t point out a single bad thing about her because it would upset her and sometimes I think you’re too dense to see it for yourself as well.”

 

At that point, he had no idea what to say. He felt like he was boiling with rage- he’d helped Seiko, the least she could’ve done is not start a fight about Andou.

 

“But, like you say, it doesn’t matter…” She finished quietly, “because nothing matters unless she’s okay, no matter who has to be crushed in the process.”

 

With that, she laid back down and rolled over, curling up tight. He stared at the back of her head for a long time after that. Of course he wouldn’t point out Andou’s flaws to her, it would devastate her, besides which she had no real flaws to point out, in his eyes. She was just doing her best and seeing her happy was the only real thing that made him happy. Why was that so bad?

 

Though he couldn’t deny now, he understood Seiko’s position a bit better. Giving sweets to someone was Andou’s form of trust and anybody who refused, therefore refused her trust. It felt like Andou may have been too wrapped up by the offense of the refusal to truly understand what Seiko had said.

 

Then again, if he was in Seiko’s shoes, he would’ve eaten the sweets even if it had killed him. Death by sweets sounded like the perfect end to him.

 

And he also couldn’t deny how much help Seiko had given in the past, but if she couldn’t say no then that was her problem, not theirs. As for the mixup…

 

There was no way he could bring this up to Andou. If Andou found out Seiko had spent the night in the apartment with him, even after what happened, she would go absolutely ballistic. The only way she could learn about the misunderstanding, that is if she chose to believe it, would be if Seiko confronted her personally.

 

Either way, their relationship was none of his business unless it was presently hurting Andou. Then he would have to interfere and at the moment, he didn’t quite trust Seiko, even if she was in such a state.

 

Through the red in his vision, he wondered what he was supposed to do about that. He couldn’t recall seeing or hearing of any family she had and at this age, she was obviously living by herself. Was it really wise to let her go home alone like this? Maybe there was some kind of support group he could send her to.

 

“By the way…” He began, ignoring the finality of Seiko’s last words, “...did you want to file a report to the police about what happened? We both got good looks at their faces, so we’d have no problem describing them.”

 

She shifted, but said nothing. Maybe this was a question for the morning…

 

“I...don’t want to...I don’t want to have to talk about it.” She mumbled into the duvet, wrapping her legs around it and curling up further.

 

“Do you want me to tell them? I know what those assholes look like.” He offered, though the authorities may need more than just his account, he wasn’t about to parade Seiko into the police station.

 

“Dunno why you’d do that.” Her words sent a stab of hurt to his chest, what kind of person did she think he was? He knew he wasn’t exactly the nicest person around, unless it was Andou, but jeez…

 

“Because you were a victim of a serious attack...you deserve at least to feel some kind of security and safety after it, I guess, not to mention those scumbags deserve to be locked away. Fucking shitbags.” He grunted.

 

Seiko hummed lowly, “So...only now do you care about what I deserve. Because if you’d left me alone, it would only reflect on you.”

 

She really had it out for him today, but he resisted the urge to snap back. “I told you, I’d do it for anybody. It’s a shitty thing to happen.” Shitty was an understatement, but Seiko shrugged. “I don’t think you would.”

 

He glared at the back of her head. Why was she talking like she knew him all of a sudden, they hadn’t even spoken for years.

 

“Put it this way…” She spoke monotonously, as if explaining something to a toddler, “If you were standing on a street and there were two crimes going on, with Andou and I as the victims, you’d jump to Andou’s rescue.”

 

He opened his mouth to agree, because it was true, Andou held more importance over Seiko in that matter, but she continued, “But it’s the severity of what those crimes would be. If Andou was in my position and I was, say, getting my bag snatched by a thief, you’d go and deal with Andou’s problem, not mine, right?”

 

“Well...yeah.” What was her point in all of this? Of course he would help Andou- there was no way that was happening to her on his watch.

 

“Alright, now if you switched our positions. I was getting jumped in an alley and Andou was getting her bag snatched. You...you would jump to Andou’s rescue again.”

 

He was about to jump into a retort, only to find his mouth empty of words.

 

“The only reason you rescued me was because Andou wasn’t around, and you know that. By yourself, you’d realised you wouldn’t be able to face yourself if you let me get attacked by a bunch of filthy old bastards, but if Andou was there…”

 

If Andou was there…

 

“Huh...she’d probably convince you that you were just fine. That leaving me would be the best option.”

 

“She wouldn’t do that.” He suddenly barked, “Even if it was you.” Or at least, that’s what he hoped, anyway. Sometimes it was really hard to tell what she was thinking.

 

Seiko rolled over to glare at him.

 

“You believe everything Andou says, y’know. She treats you like a fucking dog.”

 

He scowled, “What’s so wrong with that? It makes her happy- that’s all I want.”

 

“Because your thoughts are manipulated by her actions whether you like it or not. You’d believe every little thing that came out of her mouth, even if there was concrete proof she was wrong, because you can’t disagree with her.”

 

“She just twists you into thinking the way she does and makes it up to you by acting sweet. Because of that, it’s like you don’t have a single fucking thought of your own. That’s why, because you were alone and you didn’t have her to hurry you away, you came and beat those guys up for me.”

 

She rolled away.

 

“Without her to quell your insecurities and justify your every action with sweets, you start thinking on your own.”

 

“Why are you spouting all of this now? Why would you think I’d listen to what you have to say?” He questioned, lowly, now too exhausted to be angry at her.

 

“Because…” She paused, “...because she’s not here to tell you otherwise. And without her to tell you otherwise, you have to think about it for yourself. You can’t come to the same conclusions as Andou because you don’t think the way she does…”

 

She shifted into a tighter ball.

 

“You’re nicer than that.”


	4. Not Quite Domestic Life

 

Izayoi awoke with the sun streaming directly into his eyes; he winced, lifting his head from the headboard, where the hard wood was sure to have left some kind of dent. His shoulders were stiff and his legs were practically numb.

 

He looked over to where Seiko was sleeping, and peacefully at that, in comparison to him. She was lying on her back, arms out, snoring softly. It was odd to see her without a mask or her hands to cover her mouth- she still had the braces she had as a little kid, too. He felt a slight surge of anger, remembering last night’s events and the lengthy chat they’d had, but decided she probably needed this rest more than anything else, and swallowed it down.

 

Climbing out of bed, he moved to collect the glasses he’d placed on the bedside tables earlier on- Seiko’s glass was now empty, surprisingly enough. Had she woken up to drink it? He hadn’t noticed.

 

He took them to the kitchen, rinsed them out with water and placed them back in the cupboard. The digital clock on the oven said it was 11:30am. Go figure, considering they’d probably gotten back home at around half past three.

 

Andou didn’t get back until tomorrow afternoon, so there wasn’t much of a rush. He scoured the cupboards for something to eat, only to be sorely disappointed. Andou had taken most of the ingredients for cooking with her, and the rest of the food in the cupboards and fridge were either rotten or plain not there.

 

Maybe now was the time to go shopping. He didn’t mind living on takeout whilst Andou was away, but didn’t exactly want to be reprimanded for wasting money on it. 

 

He grabbed his wallet from the counter and flicked through it- there was more than enough money to get simple stuff like cereal, milk and rice and maybe…

 

He took a step backwards, looking over to check Seiko through the doorway. She was still fast asleep and would likely be so for a while yet. If he was hasty, he could probably make it back before she woke up…

 

He stared long and hard at her jacket, sat still damp and torn on the side of the sofa, before picking it up and rooting through the pockets, until--

 

“Ah.” He found a key, assumedly her house key. That was fine.

 

He pocketed the key, slipped on his sandals and slipped out quickly. Maybe he should’ve left some kind of note telling her not to go anywhere, or maybe she would get the hint to stay put until he came back.

 

Either way, it wasn’t like she had a decent set of clothes to go out in, but he’d cross that hurdle when he got to it.

 

It was much warmer outside now, a stark contrast from the night before, as he broke into a steady jog down the main road Seiko had attempted to make her escape earlier. He wasn’t exactly fond of cooking- he could cook rice and vegetables, the bare minimum to stay alive, but not much else. That was usually Andou’s forte.

 

Speaking of Andou, he could sure use one or two of her amazing sweets right now. He should give her a call tonight, see how she’s faring. He’d do that once Seiko had gone.

  
  


All in all, it took him twenty minutes to dash down to the shops and buy what he needed. Now, it was just about getting to where Seiko lived...if he could even remember where she lived.

 

Finding her home, alone, cost him another twenty minutes, but he was sure he got there in the end. He looked up at the apartment buildings, all packed together and groaned.

 

He didn’t know which apartment was hers. It was all well and good finding the building but it was useless if he didn’t know what apartment she lived in, that was, until he spotted a young couple leaving the building.

 

“E-Excuse me.” He was practically breathless now, after jogging for so long, but it never hurt to do some exercise. The couple looked distinctly taken aback by his rather bedraggled appearance, but cocked their heads in sync.

 

“Do you live here? Do you know where, uh...um, I have a, uh, friend,” Friend being a rather generous term in this case, “who lives here and I don’t know which apartment is hers.”

 

“What does she look like?” The small woman asked, politely. He roughly held out a hand to gesture her height. “About this high, gangly, wears a mask and has curly white hair. You- you’d know her if you saw her, for sure.” It wasn’t like Seiko was the most inconspicuous person in the world, but his description seemed to ring many bells.

 

“Oh, Miss Kimura? Of course, she lives in apartment 23, on the second floor!” She said, brightly, in a manner that reminded him of Andou. He smiled fondly, silently, eagerly awaiting her return.

 

“Thanks.” He said, before jogging off into the apartment building and up the stairs. He didn’t like lifts very much and when taking the stairs was the case, it was often he’d have to carry Andou up them, which was absolutely fine by him.

 

He finally reached apartment 23 and fished around his pocket for the key he’d taken from Seikos’ jacket; he jammed the key in the lock and twisted it around, stiffly, until the door finally gave way.

 

Seiko’s apartment was...something.

 

There was a ratty couch, covered in blankets, in the middle of the room opposite a small, blockish television and a low coffee table, covered in packets and bottles of what looked like medication. There was a tiny kitchen area behind the sofa and a door in the corner of the room, which led to what he assumed was her bedroom.

 

In the far right corner was two tables jammed together, covered in all kinds of scientific equipment he wasn’t familiar with, but assumed that was Seiko’s medicine making setup.

 

Where, in the heaps of mess, would he find her medication? What medication did she even take? He rooted around the tables, mostly empty bottles and torn labels- nothing he could decipher. 

 

He wisely decided not to touch her equipment and instead peeked into her room where, to his relief, several sets of small bottles sat on her nightstand, aside her small, blanket-strewn bed.

 

He briefly checked the labels, not overly familiar with the terms, wondering which bottles to take before dumping them all into his shopping bag. It had to be one of them, so whichever one it was, Seiko would know.

 

He also grabbed a few garments from her open chest of drawers- just a plain skirt and a shirt that would fit her better than his. He stuffed them all into the shopping bag, before making his hasty exit. Didn’t want to be caught rooting around her apartment for too long, it smelled really weird in here.

 

He was worried maybe Andou would smell it on him when she returned…

 

He locked the door and tested the handle to make sure he had done, before clearing the stairs and leaving the building. It would take some time to return and he ideally wanted to get back before Seiko would wake up, lest she leave suddenly without a word. That would leave him in an apartment with a bag full of her clothes and medicine and that wasn’t about to happen.

 

On the journey home, he did his best to shake the thought of last nights conversation from his mind, but it was proving to be incredibly difficult. It was the first time he’d ever hear Seiko speak so harshly, or be so thoughtful. Usually, in his mind, she was a bit of a mess, not too sure what to say and not too sure what to do, especially in times of stress, but way she’d spoken to him was much different than before.

 

Confident, almost, yet desperate.

 

He...he didn’t know what to think. He knew she was wrong, Andou, to him, was perfect in every way, he couldn’t fault her if he tried but...he didn’t know exactly  _ how _ she was wrong.

 

In the end, he gave up thinking of a concrete answer, as he entered the shop and carried the bag upstairs. He silently wished Seiko was still asleep, it would be much less hassle if she was but unfortunately…

 

...when he checked the bedroom, she was gone.

 

Not in the living room, or the bathroom. He sighed with exasperation, thinking about how’d he’d have to make the journey all the way back to Seiko’s to return her things, until he rounded the corner into the kitchen, to see her sat on the counter, staring out of the window, cradling a glass of water in her hands.

 

She seemed to have made herself comfortable. Her usual mask was still missing, and even now it was incredibly surreal to see her face without any kind of cover.

 

She looked more normal than ever.

 

When she finally noticed him standing in the doorway, her face contorted into surprise and her mouth fell open ever so slightly.

 

“Uh...sorry for being gone so long.” He spoke gruffly, setting the bag down on the counter before retrieving her clothes and medicine. “I stopped by your house to grab you these. Didn’t really know which ones you take so I took all of them.”

 

She stumbled for words, very unlike last night, but settled for a small thank you. She took three of the pill bottles and emptied their contents into her hand before swallowing them down in one go. 

 

“What are they for?”

 

“None of your business.”

 

He stared blankly for a few moments, before shrugging. Fair enough, he supposed, as he took the rest of the shopping out of the bag and put them in their rightful homes. He’d bought the bare essentials, or what he thought were the essentials. Rice, eggs, milk, vegetables and all of that, but what to really do with them, he didn’t know. He could just make some rice and vegetables.

 

It would have to do…

 

“What are you cooking?”

 

He was tempted to retort with the same response she had given him, but decided that was probably just plain childish. “I dunno...some rice and vegetables, I suppose.”

 

“Do you not know how to cook?”

 

He shrugged, turning away to stare at the fridge which, all of a sudden, seemed much more interesting than the conversation at hand. Seiko chewed her lip, before setting down her glass, grabbing the pile of clothes and leaving the kitchen. “Just...hold on a moment.” She told him.

 

So he did. He didn’t know why he did, but he did. Instead, he grabbed another glass of water, and stared vacantly out of the kitchen window.

 

Five minutes later, Seiko returned wearing the new clothes and her mask. She sifted through the items Izayoi had bought earlier and sighed. “You didn’t really get much, did you?”

 

“Didn’t think I’d have to.” He responded, icily. Seiko sighed, crossing her arms and gripping onto her elbows. “I’m not talking about me...I mean for you, it’s a bit bland, but there’s more you can do than rice and vegetables.”

 

He raised an eyebrow with intrigue. “Okay…” Personally he was fine subsisting on rice and vegetables until Andou returned, but Seiko looked mildly displeased by that decision.

 

“You could make egg-fried rice.” She suggested, and he stared down at the items on the counter. “If I knew how to make egg-fried rice,” he began, “I would’ve done it already.”

 

“Yeesh…” She grumbled, “Fine. I’ll show you how.”

 

He opened his mouth to refuse, he didn’t need her coming in and teaching him how to cook, but before he could stop her, she’d already found a frying pan and a pot and was pouring rice into the pot.

 

She thrust the rice-filled pot into his chest, “Fill that up with water.”

 

Unsure of what to say, he silently took the pot and ran it under the tap until the water line was above the rice. He wasn’t exactly fond of taking orders from Seiko in his own house, much preferring her to leave as soon as possible, but the thought of something more tasty and substantial than plain rice and vegetables was overwhelmingly nice.

 

Seiko set the pot on the stove and turned the heat up, waiting for it to boil. 

 

“In the meantime, you can cut the vegetables you want to go in it.” She said, hoisting herself up to sit on the counter once more. Izayoi looked between her and the vegetables, before sighing. Food and sweets countered all, he supposed.

 

He grabbed one of the many kitchen knives he had, crafted by yours truly, and got to work, efficiently dicing two bell peppers and an onion. Seiko watched him silently, kicking her feet back and forth rhythmically.

 

“Okay...I’m done. What do I do now?”

 

“Is the rice done?”

 

He lamely lifted the lid of the pot to check the rice. Spluttering through the faceful of steam, he could see the rice had risen up quite nicely. “I think so.”

 

“Well if you’re not sure, test it.” She deadpanned. Could he really be this dense? Cooking wasn’t exactly rocket science and the guy was a master blacksmith for fucks sake. She watched as Izayoi fished out a pair of chopsticks and plucked a few grains of rice to test.

 

“I think it tastes fine…” He murmured. “Alright, then take it off the heat. Now stick some oil in the pan and turn the heat up.” She said, gesturing to the frying pan on the counter. Izayoi did so with surprisingly quiet obedience, especially to someone who wasn’t Andou. Seiko wondered why that was.

 

After he put the oil in the pan and took the rice off the heat, he turned back to Seiko with an expectant look.

 

“Now wait for the oil to heat up. When it starts getting bubbles, put the vegetables in.”

 

He nodded silently, turning back to the pan and watching it intently. This guy...was this guy for real? She shook her head and wondered if he was aware he was following her instructions. After yesterday night and the past few years, he should still be mad at her but for now he was just...quiet.

 

She was about to ask if he was alright, for some reason beyond her, before a loud sizzling noise filled up the room as Izayoi threw the chopped vegetables in the pan. Instead of asking, she settled for pointing out, “You might want to turn the heat down now, so they don’t burn.”

 

Slowly but surely, the room was filled with the savoury aroma of fried vegetables and she sighed, feeling her stomach rumble. She hadn’t eaten too much of the takeout Izayoi had ordered last night and was starting to feel the consequences, not to mention medication and a lack of food wasn’t a good mix.

 

“Okay now put the rice in and mix it up a little bit. Maybe put some salt in there.” 

 

He tipped the still steaming pot of rice into the pan along with a small pinch of salt and began to stir it around with a wooden spatula. “Uh…okay.” Seiko began, “So...now you’re gonna want to crack one or two eggs into the pan and stir it around so it coats the rice.”

 

Izayoi seemed to have a mental short circuit looking for the eggs, before plucking two out and cracking them one-by-one on the side of the pan. He swore loudly when he dropped half of the eggshell into the pan, fishing it out with his fingers and hissing at the intense heat.

 

But come ten minutes later, the rice was looking good to eat and smelled delicious.

 

“I think that’s good.” Seiko murmured. “Think it’s done.”

 

Izayoi turned off the heat and fished out two bowls, eager to shovel his new creation into them and get to eating it. He held out a hearty bowl to Seiko, with a pair of chopsticks and she couldn’t quite hide her surprise.

 

“Huh? Me…?” Was all she could really say. “Think of it as payment for showing me how.” He muttered flatly, as Seiko took the bowl and chopsticks, following him into the living room to eat.

 

Izayoi was surprised at how good it tasted, for something so simple, as he shoved bite after bite in his mouth, swallowing it down at a remarkable speed, whereas Seiko daintily nibbled on her rice.

 

The atmosphere was indescribable. Seiko wasn’t all too sure how Izayoi was feeling after last night and honestly, Izayoi felt the same. He knew he didn’t like it and he knew Seiko was wrong but beyond that was a mystery.

 

However he’d accepted her help purely because it benefitted him in the future and nothing more. She’d be gone in a short while anyway and after that, things would be going back to normal. He couldn’t wait for Andou to come home.

 

“Sorry...about being here for so long.” Seiko mumbled around a mouthful of rice. Izayoi glanced over at her, but his expression was unreadable.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the police about this?”

 

Seiko looked down at her near-full bowl, now feeling rather sick. “Not...not now. I should, shouldn’t I…?” She looked up at Izayoi with a crease in her brow. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He murmured, taking another bite. “You just don’t want to talk about it. That’s fair enough; nobody’s going to force you to.”

 

She sighed. Nothing was going to get solved if she kept quiet- those men were still out there and would potentially harm another woman. She didn’t want that…

 

“I think you should give yourself some time and if it really comes down to it, I can give the police a description for you.” He swallowed thickly, “Not like you have to follow my advice but it’s all I can think of.”

 

“I think you might be right.” She admitted. “But...I’m not apologising for yesterday, if that’s what you’re expecting.”

 

“No, I didn’t expect you to. Your resolve would be flimsy if you didn’t stick by what you said. The least you can do is stick by your beliefs with confidence.” Which, admittedly, wasn’t something he’d seen her do before.

 

“Why are you encouraging me? Everything I said went against everything you believe. Shouldn’t you be trying to tell me otherwise?”

 

“You won’t believe otherwise...same way I can’t really believe you, I guess.” He set his empty bowl down. Seiko sniffed, “It’s not about what I believe. I’m telling you the truth.” 

 

“It’s an opinion.” He muttered, with gritted teeth.

 

“A correct one.” She added. “Unless you can refute my argument with something more substantial.” She said, as if challenging him. He raised an eyebrow. “Not like I can bring physical proof to a concept.” He said pointedly, “But I’m more than just a dog, like you think I am. Ruruka doesn’t control me or manipulate me and even if she did...I wouldn’t mind it.”

 

“That. That right there.” Seiko pointed, “If she manipulated you, which she does, she could easily manipulate you into thinking it’s what you wanted and since you’ve been together since early childhood, it’s not like you’d have a chance to think any different.”

 

“We were all friends since we were kids, so why do you suddenly have it out for her now?” Izayoi snapped, “If you really hated helping her and if you really couldn’t stand the way you thought she manipulated me, why not leave?”

 

“I’ve always noticed how she acts and to a degree, it’s always infuriated me, but I guess it’s something you don’t understand, considering you’ve always had her to fall back on.” Seiko shot back coldly, “Because when you have nothing and nobody, you’re willing to do anything to not feel like you don’t exist, even if it hurts you. At the time, I never cared about what she did, or the way she just...she just used me for my talents because all I ever wanted was someone to pay attention to me.”

 

She set her own bowl down. “So I wanted to be used, because it was better than having nothing at all, but in the end, I’m just back where I started. No point putting myself through it again if people are just going to betray me.” She hung her head. “But you wouldn’t understand that. You and her have always had each other since the beginning.”

 

Izayoi...had no response to that. Because she was correct. He’d never felt much loneliness in his life because Andou was all he needed and all he cared about.

 

Come to think of it...he’d never actually had that many friends. The only other people he interacted with in a way that would suggest friendship were Andou’s friends, most of which he couldn’t quite connect with due to lack of mutual interests. The same could possibly be said for Seiko, but he’d spent much more time with her and Andou during school, not to mention it appeared they actually  _ did _ have some things in common.

 

Not that he was complaining about this. It was Seiko who was having a problem with loneliness, not him, though he had to admit, she was right when she said he wouldn’t understand.

 

Or...perhaps…

 

“What’s stopping you from finding new friends then?” He asked, rather carelessly in fact, as Seiko merely stared blankly in response, as if trying to decipher just what he meant.

 

Suddenly, she stood up, and gestured to her entire body.

 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but I’ve never been a popular girl. I’m not stereotypical ‘friend’ material.” She spat, “You’ve seen the way people look at me.”

 

He sighed. He didn’t like agreeing with her but...she wasn’t what most people looked for in a friend- not even that but she was actually rather hostile upon first glance as well. Seems she didn’t take kindly to people who were too ‘normal’.

 

“Again, what did you want done about that?” He scratched the back of his head tiredly and Seiko smacked her lips. “You’re fucking dense, y’know that? I never said I wanted anything done about it. I was telling you that that was why I clung so much to... _ her _ .”

 

“Besides which,” she continued, “I’ve grown used to my own company now. Doesn’t bother me as much as it used to.” She sat back down heavily and Izayoi tilted his head away because, goddamnit, she was right, she’d never mentioned wanting a solution to the problem.

 

He wasn’t used to this, even with Seiko. The only person he really had in-depth conversations with, which were few and far between anyway, was Andou, so being put in a position where the girl sat next to him was in a volatile mood whilst trying to defend his girlfriend and understand just what the fuck was going on was beyond his capabilities. Andou was the one who did the talking, not him.

 

“What’s with the face?” Seiko muttered, rather bluntly.

 

“I...I dunno what to think about this.” He answered, truthfully. “I’m not used to these kinds of conversations and honestly, I don’t think I know what’s going on anymore.” He sat back against the couch cushions and sighed. Seiko watched him intently.

 

“Lemme guess. She’s the one who does all the talking for you.”

 

He didn’t respond, but that was enough for Seiko.

 

“Guess she’s the brains and you’re the brawn.” She said, thickly, to which, at this point, Izayoi could not deny. He was tired and all this emotional turmoil was getting out of hand. Why had the girls stopped being friends again? Whose fault was it?

 

He was snapped out of his internal panic when Seiko stood up and took their bowls. “I’ll wash them.” She said quietly, a far cry from the hostile tone of voice she’d adopted moments ago. “It’s the least I can do.”

 

He watched her head to the kitchen without much of a coherent thought in his mind, other than something that had definitely lingered from last night…

 

_ “You’re nicer than that…” _

 

For a moment, he wondered why such a small, innocuous statement had been at the back of his mind all day. Sure, he’d been praised on his work as a blacksmith and for his creations, but that was just his talent. Aside from that there’d been nothing directed towards him as a person.

 

Of course, he’d get the occasional praise from Andou and he revelled in that, it made him feel like the happiest man on earth so why did hearing it from her, from somebody else, evoke a different feeling from him.

 

He stared hard at the floor.

  
  


Seiko returned minutes later and sat back down on the couch with a glass of water in her hand. Izayoi refrained from staring directly at her, but had noticed the difference in attitude since she arrived here yesterday.

 

Just yesterday she was a shivering, trembling mess who sat in the corner of the room and wouldn’t touch a scrap of food unless he insisted. Now, she’d washed his dishes and grabbed herself a drink.

 

This...this wasn’t Seiko- this wasn’t the Seiko he knew, at least.

 

When did she grow a backbone…?

 

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gone in a minute. Just...let me drink this.” She mumbled around the glass, but that wasn’t what was bothering Izayoi.

 

“Aren’t you scared of me or something…?”

 

The way Seiko slowly turned her head to look at him made him feel like a fool, what kind of question was that? He quietly groaned at his own mistake and shook his head. “Not that...not that you should be scared of me.” Or should she? Would it be easier for him if she was?

 

“No. Not...not anymore.” She spoke, albeit uncertainly.

 

Not anymore? So she had been scared of him in the past? “What changed?” He dared to ask and she scoffed, putting the empty glass down on the table.

 

“Yesterday, I think. Because...I’ve never been able to get much of a grip on you but the more I’ve thought about it while I’ve been here, the more I understand. I’m not scared of you, or what you could do to me because...you don’t have a reason to do anything.”

 

He raised a brow. And...Andou? Andou wasn’t a reason? If Seiko so much as touched a hair on Andou’s head he would wring her neck, surely she knew that?

 

“I mean...at any point last night you could’ve left me alone, you could’ve kicked me out but you actually went out of your way to come and find me.” She pointed out, “And really, I’ve posed no kind of threat to you, either. You know I’m not going to go near Andou.”

 

“It was a stupid question. Just forget it.” He grunted, dismissively. Seiko tilted her head slightly, so her right eye was barely visible. “I think I sensed a bout of insecurity there.” She said lightly, and Izayoi scowled. “I have no problems with myself, thank you very much.”

 

“I didn’t mean that. It’s just...you’re used to me not being open or speaking my mind. I think everyone is…” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “So now that I’ve spoken my mind...you’re not quite sure what to do.”

 

That could’ve been said for the entire situation in general. He had no idea what to do.

 

“You know...I think you’re the first person I’ve ever really spoken to like this.” She said, turning to look in the other direction. “And...I get the feeling the same can be said for you too.”

 

“Did you just...suddenly develop a split personality overnight or something?” He asked, almost quite seriously. Was this a result of the trauma from last night? Was Seiko a totally different person now?

 

“Uh...no. I’m not even sure if that’s how it works…” She mused, “I don’t know. I don’t think I really thought about what I was saying or who I was talking to last night. I just...said what came to mind.” She rested her head in her hands. That was true, she’d been so desperate all of a sudden to just get her point out, no matter who to, that the fear of any kind of consequence or alienation went right out the window.

 

Perhaps she was in some kind of daze. In literally any other situation, she wouldn’t have done this...so why now?

 

“I’ve outstayed my welcome I think.” She mumbled, now feeling an ever-increasing bout of nerves creeping up on her. The adrenaline of being so strong in her convictions and just desperate to give someone a verbal bollocking had now slowly left her body.

 

“Are you okay to get back?” 

 

“I’ll be fine.” She said, reaching for her jacket and heading for the door. Izayoi shakily stood up and followed her out to see her off, watching as she pocketed her bottles of medicine.

 

“About...about what we talked about before.” Izayoi began, not really knowing where he was going. “I don’t...really know. I can’t really get my head around any of this.”

 

Seiko raised an eyebrow in confusion.

 

“I...I have good instincts. Trustworthy instincts.” He said firmly, “And my instincts are telling me that something is just...off.”

 

“You still don’t really understand what happened back then do you?” He’d expected her tone to be condescending, but it was quiet and gentle.

 

“Not even that, it’s just...things feel different now.”

 

Why he was telling her this, he didn’t know, but Seiko had proved herself to be articulate and surprisingly insightful. It wasn’t like he could tell this to Andou and by himself, he couldn’t see an end or a clear answer, if there was one. In fact, he didn’t even know what felt so wrong in the first place. He felt like he was running in circles for no reason other than because he had to.

 

“I don’t think now is the time to talk about it…” She said, adjusting her mask, “but...I think we could. You still have the same old phone as you did back in Hope’s Peak, right?”

 

Izayoi nodded. He had no use for a fancy phone, so he’d stayed loyal to the old flip-phone he’d acquired in high school.

 

“Means you have the same number…” Seiko murmured to nobody in particular. She then shook her head, her curls bouncing around her face. “Whatever. Don’t...don’t tell Andou about this. That I was here.”

 

“I’m not that stupid.” Telling Andou was a bad, bad, bad idea.

 

“So...see you around.” She mumbled, lamely. “Good luck with the hookswords.”

 

He cracked a small smile. “Thanks.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> savage seiko? in my fic? it's more likely than you think


	5. Lazy Days Can Be Stressful

Seiko woke up that morning, surprised to find herself in her own bed again. She reached a limp hand out to feel for her phone, flipping it open and checking the screen. It was 10:45am, she’d fallen asleep almost the moment she got home.

 

She rolled onto her back and clicked through her messages. Empty, for the most part. She didn’t...really have any friends now. She had small conversations with her neighbours and still kept in touch with Sakakura, but aside from that...nothing.

 

She held her finger over the message button...was now a good time?

 

She spent fifteen minutes tiredly debating on whether or not to message him now- part of her was sure the last few days were a mere fever dream. She’d...she’d genuinely snapped at Izayoi and spent a good chunk of her time ruthlessly yelling at him.

 

And if she were to message him, what was she supposed to start with? If Andou caught a glimpse of a message that reminded her remotely of her, they were both fucked. Make it vague, make it something she wouldn’t think twice about. Or maybe she should just...forget it. Forget everything, he was still sickeningly loyal to her after all.

 

She chewed her lip indecisively.

 

Eventually, she worked up the courage and tapped out the message  _ ‘could you tell me when the hookswords are done?’ _

 

Perhaps posing as some kind of client who requested his services would be enough- or, of course, Izayoi could easily delete the messages from his phone. Even so this all felt so...snakey. There was no doubt she could not stand Andou now, and she wasn’t even going to think about making up with her anytime soon, but she didn’t like the idea of having to be sneaky. It felt wrong.

 

She sent the message, switched her phone off and rolled over, pushing her face into the pillow. She smacked her lips uncomfortably and let out a light groan. 

 

She had...very little to do today.

 

Of course, she could always be doing something, merely small side projects and studies but there was nothing large scale or anything she’d be paid for. That being said, she should probably be working on something profitable, but for the moment, she didn’t feel up to it. Maybe taking it easy for a day or two would be the best.

 

She spent another half-hour loafing around in bed, occasionally checking her phone, which remained dead silent. Eventually, she rolled out of bed and padded out of her room towards the kitchen. She down her necessary pills with a glass of water and scrolled through her phone. Social media really wasn’t her thing- too many people oversharing and embarrassing themselves- but it had its perks.

 

Andou was very into social media back in high school, and probably still was. She remembered Andou being the one to coerce her into making accounts for all sorts of things, most of which she’d abandoned, but back then her only friends on social media websites were her and Izayoi. Izayoi, too, wasn’t much of a fan of social media but went along with it for Andou’s sake.

 

Guess that was another thing they had in common…

 

She switched her phone off, putting the empty glass in the sink, before opening one of the cupboards, to find a near empty bag of rice and a box of stale cereal. The fridge wasn’t much help either, since it held no milk, a bag of now rotten carrots and a jar of pickled fish.

 

She sagged slightly on the spot. Guess today called for some routine food shopping. 

 

She dressed herself agonisingly slowly, brushed her teeth thoroughly and grabbed one of her larger bags, along with a pair of headphones. Feeling for her wallet and keys, she nodded satisfactorily before leaving the apartment and locking the door behind her.

 

The walk to the shops was nice enough- at least it wasn’t dark or cold, she thought to herself, looking up at the shining sun. The sun wasn’t exactly her friend but at least it was safer.

 

She didn’t bother making the journey all the way to one of the larger, big brand stores. Instead, she stopped by a small string of shops on one of the main roads a little ways from her apartment. She stepped through the automatic doors, feeling the chill of the air conditioning down her neck, and picked up a metal basket.

 

She grabbed most of the essentials as she passed them by; milk, eggs, bread, rice and vegetables, and a few other things like fish and ground meat. Enough for the next few days, anyway, along with a few instant meals that would be easy to make when she couldn’t rack up the motivation to cook properly.

 

She was always surprised at how much less it costed compared to the maths she did in her head, but she always had a habit of rounding it up. She watched as the cashier bagged her items and handed the bags to her with a merry smile.

 

Seiko tried to smile back, but remembered she was wearing a mask, making it futile. She bowed awkwardly, and walked away, silently hoping the checkout lady wasn’t too alarmed by her.

 

Though walking without looking where she was going had thrown her from one awkward situation into another- out of the frying pan and into the fire you might say- as she promptly walked headlong into a larger man.

 

She stumbled backwards, muttering a string of apologies as she felt several pairs of eyes turn on her but when she lifted her head to see who she’d bumped into, she squeaked.

 

“Sa...Sakakura…”

 

The hulking man looming above her looked momentarily vacant, before giving a small, unsure laugh and rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, it’s you. What’s up? How’ve you been?” He ruffled Seiko’s curly head of hair and she whined lowly.

 

She didn’t mention the events of the past two days.

 

“Ah...nothing, really. Working, I guess.” She mumbled with uncertainty, eyeing the mounds of fresh fruit and vegetables packed into Sakakura’s basket. “What about you?”

 

“Man, it’s been boring. Got sent out on a shopping errand for Yukizome but that’s about it.” He shrugged, switching his basket to his other hand. Seiko watched in awe as he mock weight-lifted his basket, remembering just how powerful this man was. Good job she wasn’t in his bad books- she didn’t need her name on anyone elses shitlist.

 

“Headin’ home?”

 

“Uh...oh, yeah! Yeah, I’m heading home now.” She said, gesturing to her bags. She was about to sidestep him and head for the exit until something in her pocket buzzed. She practically dropped the bags in alarm, and fished her phone out of her pocket.

 

_ ‘Sure. i’ll send you some pictures to see if you really want.’ _

 

That was...Izayoi- he’d responded! She hurriedly typed out a short  _ ‘that would be great’ _ , vowing to strike up something a little more substantial later on, however when she looked up to bid farewell to Sakakura, he’d sprouted a rather wolfish grin.

 

“Sending pictures, huh? What’s all that about, huh?” He teased, and Seiko shrunk in on herself in internal embarrassment. From the outside, that must’ve looked really quite sketchy. “Um...just a friend...he’s making something for me is all.” She said, because it wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth either.

 

“That right? Well...if he gives you any trouble gimme a call and I’ll sort him out.” He said, clenching a fist for emphasis as he strode away to the checkout, but not before calling over his shoulder, “And tell him to keep it wrapped! Though I guess you can cure all kinds of diseases these days, huh.”

 

Seiko shrieked, almost dropping her phone, much to the alarm of other shoppers in the nearby area. She pocketed her phone, grabbed her bags and made a hasty retreat to the exit, hearing Sakakura’s echoing laugh from behind her.

 

How embarrassing. Her and Izayoi? No way, not a chance in hell.

 

She spent the journey home staring at her phone screen, oblivious to the world around her, wondering what to type next. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was so focused on chatting to Izayoi- yesterday he had said he was troubled somehow and that...that was what she was going to help with, right? She was going to help him with his troubles.

 

Why was that a good idea again?

 

She paused outside of her apartment building, staring hard at the glaring screen, before typing  _ ‘just bumped into sakakura. he’s still so scary…’ _ then switching her phone off and pushing it back into her pocket, bracing for the journey up to the second floor.

 

The next half an hour was spent putting the shopping in its rightful place in the kitchen, followed by washing up all the stray dishes that had made homes in various places in her apartment to the peppy tunes of a popular music channel.

 

She tried to be tidy, she really did, but more often than not, she lost track of the state of her apartment when she was working and before she knew it, it was chaos all over again. Looking at the state of the carpet, she’d probably have to find the vacuum cleaner used for the second floor apartments, wherever that may be.

 

She jumped, dropping a plate into the sink with a dangerous sounding clatter, as her phone buzzed from the countertop beside her. Wiping her hands, she picked up the phone.

 

_ ‘sakakura? i caught him blowing a gasket in a tool shop near my house.’ _

 

Well...it was friendly for Izayoi? He wasn’t outright telling her to piss off, which was a win to her, but for whatever reason that may have been, she didn’t know.

 

_ ‘that sounds dangerous’ _

 

She set the phone down, looking out at her now half-tidy kitchen. Now filled with a newfound motivation, she set off to finish the washing up.

 

Ten minutes later, she wiped the last countertop with proud finality as she stood back to admire her hard work. Sure, it was only twenty minutes of it, but she still had enough energy to start on the living room, but not before checking her phone which had gone ignored for some time.

 

_ ‘youre tellin me’ _

 

She smiled nervously, not quite sure whether Sakakura was overly tolerant of Andou and Izayoi.

 

_ ‘lets hope he doesnt find your shop then…’ _

 

She quickly stepped out of her apartment and into the hall, where a cupboard stood between her apartment and the one opposite. Fiddling with the key, she opened it and dragged out the hefty vacuum cleaner from inside, surprised it was even in there to begin with.

 

_ ‘knife beats fist i believe. i think im safe’ _

 

She flicked the vacuum on, filling her apartment with a deafening, hellish noise.

 

_ ‘im not so sure. I always heard that rock beats scissors’ _

 

The carpet was sickeningly grimy, and Seiko scrubbed hard to get all the dirt and stray hair from its fabric.

 

_ ‘the only rocks that guy has are in his head.’ _

 

Seiko giggled.

 

_ ‘ah rurukas back. do you mind if we talk later?’ _

 

The message sent a funny chill down her spine and into her gut, where it sat uncomfortably, but really, what did she expect?

 

_ ‘sure’ _

 

She spent the next hour silently cleaning up the rest of her living room, feeling quite sullen about it but by the time she sat down on the now clean sofa, in front of the now clean table, she felt a little more optimistic.

  
  


Meanwhile, Izayoi’s heart was swelling as he was promptly tackled into a hug.

 

“Yoi~! I missed you!” Andou beamed, pressing her face into Izayoi’s chest, as Izayoi wrapped his arms tightly around her tiny frame, almost picking her up off the ground. “I missed you too, Ruruka. How did it go?”

 

She stepped back, removing her fluffy jacket and boots, before groaning. “Lame. I mean, there were some totally famous people there and some really talented people too, and that’s being generous, but the rest of it was really lame. Mostly a bunch of amateurs who thought they were all that ‘cause they can arrange stuff onto a plate.”

 

She sighed, flopping down onto the couch. “It was no fun without you there.”

 

He took a seat beside her and she instinctively curled up into his side. “Sorry, babe. Still, did you have a good time?”

 

“Oh, yeah! Aside from the crappy parts,” she waved her hand dismissively, “A whole bunch of people came to try my stuff! They were all super impressed too!” She gave a light laugh and Izayoi pulled her into a side hug, resting his feet up on the coffee table. “As they should be- your sweets are to die for.”

 

“Oh, Yoi~!” She giggled, snuggling up into his side, where the two spent the next hour cuddling, with the vague noise of the television in the background. He was thrilled to have his girlfriend back, but no matter what, he couldn’t ignore the feeling of a hole being burnt into his pocket where his phone was.

  
  


* * *

 

 

Seiko sank deeper into the hot water that filled the bathtub up to the brim, sighing softly. She deserved this, she thought, feeling the water soothe her joints. She was almost ready to fall asleep then and there until a buzz from her phone startled her, causing her to slip under the water for a moment.

 

She spluttered, gripping the sides of the bathtub  and grabbing a towel to wipe her face. She didn’t want to add a near drowning experience to her list of why her weekend was shit.

 

Still rather disgruntled, she checked her phone, carefully not to let it slip from her hands and into the tub.

 

_ ‘guess im free for a bit. i know i said we could talk about it but now i dont really know what i felt so off about’ _

 

Seiko pulled a face of uncertainty. Things had probably gone back to normal now that Andou was back and she wasn’t at their house.

 

_ ‘take your time. just say whats on your mind’ _

 

_ ‘i dont really have much time since im sat on the toilet.’ _

 

She snorted, sinking lower into the steaming water.

 

_ ‘you caught me in the bath too…’ _

 

She gently swished her feet around under the water, sending ripples up to her neck.

 

_ ‘fuck sorry. um...bad timing i guess’ _

 

On the other end of the line, Izayoi cringed into his hands. Not only did he tell her he was on the toilet, which was just stupid oversharing on his part, but he’d caught her at a bad time as well.

 

He didn’t really want to think about Seiko in the bath but his brain did it anyway.

 

Ah well, mistake made. Nothing much he could do to take it back now, was there?

 

_ ‘Its fine. anyway before i left you said things feel different…?’ _

 

He read the message several times, debating his answer, before deciding that honestly blurting everything that came to his head was the best course of action. His fingers moved quickly as he tapped out his next message.

 

_ ‘i dont really know why youd want to help me...but yeah i guess. idk how but it just does.’ _

 

He ignored the feeling of his legs going to sleep. Meanwhile, on the other end, Seiko was continually sinking lower and lower under the depths of the water as she typed.

 

_ ‘because i dont think youre that bad. you just seem massively misinformed to me.’ _

 

Izayoi decided to take that as some kind of compliment.

 

_ ‘im not a psychologist but it seems like it feels weird to you because your view of me is different now. Youre kinda getting your own opinion of me that doesnt come from andou’ _

 

That...made sense, he decided. Not that he thought Andou was wrong, her opinions were understandable and easy for him to agree with, but he couldn’t deny his own opinion of Seiko had changed since before.

 

Before he viewed her as just pure evil. A little awkward, and it was nice for Andou to take her in and be so nice to her, she didn’t do that to just anybody, but the way Seiko had suddenly snapped at them both, branding them as traitors broke that bond instantly. Andou was no traitor, and neither was he…

 

...but now he could see that Seiko wasn’t either.

 

_ ‘its probably really rare that you share a different opinion from andou and since its me you probably feel some kind of guilt for it.’ _

 

Probably. The way Seiko worded everything made it sound so...reasonable.

 

_ ‘i still cant forgive how you hurt andou back then.’ _

 

_ ‘i didnt expect you to but now you have better insight into it it makes sense to you. youre not inclined to mindlessly hate me for something i didnt do.’ _

 

He grunted, leaning back against the cistern.

 

_ ‘guess not’ _

 

He wasn’t sure what else to respond with. He’d never been active on his phone- the only people he really messaged were Andou and his parents. Speaking of Andou, she’d probably grow bored if he was in the bathroom for too long, possibly even suspicious.

 

_ ‘well im not a mind reader so i dont really know what youre thinking but i think its just new for you to do something without andou or disagree with her but you feel guilty because you dont want to go against her’ _

 

_ ‘of course i dont, i love her.’ _

 

_ ‘i dont doubt that but you shouldnt feel guilty for anything. Um...put it this way, do you think the bombing incident is really my fault?’ _

 

He paused, staring hard at the screen, wondering if it were times like these where one action would determine an entirely new future.

 

_ ‘no’ _

 

_ ‘but andou still thinks it was me. she thinks i did it on purpose but now you two share a different opinion about something...kinda serious.’ _

 

_ ‘i guess so’ _

 

_ ‘i might be wrong but that means you feel guilty for having an opinion different to hers and thats...actually pretty bad.’ _

 

He flinched. It can’t be that bad- this was just something Andou felt very strongly about and he wanted to trust his girlfriend over Seiko.

 

_ ‘i dont really care either way’ _

 

_ ‘im not saying you do but im pretty sure thats whats happening.’ _

 

Izayoi shifted forward, resting his chin on his hand. Maybe...maybe he should talk to Andou about Seiko. Maybe say that he bumped into her or something...he was sure Andou would understand, but he didn’t want to risk upsetting her. She might think he was siding with Seiko, which was not what he was doing at all.

 

_ ‘well ive got stuff to do anyway. hookswords to make and all that’ _

 

Seiko chewed her lip, skilfully pulling the plug from the bathtub with her feet, letting the water drain away.

 

_ ‘cant wait to see them ^^’ _

 

She regretted adding the little emote the moment she hit send, cringing outwardly and tumbling awkwardly out of the bath to get dressed. Similarly, Izayoi stared at the emote with a blank expression, really quite unsure of what to think of such an uncharacteristic move.

 

What was her deal now? Just two days ago she was biting his head off about the past and now she was sending awkward, nervous looking emotes whilst they had strange, secret, impromptu counselling sessions about something even Izayoi didn’t quite understand.

 

He sighed, deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sakakura: i should be nice to seikos boyfriend  
> also sakakura: (ง'̀-'́)ง


	6. Parkour Isn't A Hobby Of Mine

A day had passed and the messages between Seiko and Izayoi were few and far between, sent only when the both of them had the time to themselves and with Andou around, that was rather rare.

 

And despite blowing a gasket at him, she found the small talk over the phone to be quite...enjoyable? Of course, that small, miniscule amount of enjoyment increased tenfold when she woke up to a message.

 

_‘I finished the hookswords. Sorry they took so long.’_

 

Her face lit up upon reading it, as she snuggled deeper under her duvet, though she wanted to ask herself why, after so long, talking to him felt decent?

 

_‘Can i see them?’_

 

She decided today might be a good day, as she dragged herself out of bed and to the kitchen for a cup of tea. She left her phone on the kitchen counter whilst she left for a shower, almost falling asleep under the cascading water.

 

She returned shortly after, throwing the previously used mug into the sink and grabbing her phone. Again, she had very little to do today, but she supposed she could start on something new.

 

_‘actually andous gone to see her parents...you could come and see them for yourself if you wanted’_

 

Seiko yelped, dropping her phone and hearing it hit the floor with a heart-stopping crack, but luckily it remained mostly undamaged. He...was offering for her to come over? Today?

 

_‘sure i think im free. Is there a time you want me?’_

 

It sounded very assumptive, to her, as she sat on the couch. Her mouth was stretched in a thin, awkward line, as if she was facially unable to react to the situation at hand.

 

_‘she left earlier this morning so you can come whenever.’_

 

Well...talking in person was miles easier than texting at random times during the day, not to mention she was incredibly excited to see the finished hookswords.

 

_‘guess ill head over now then’_

 

She tried to act casual, trying not to trip over the couch to grab her shoes, as if trying to prove to herself that she wasn’t being over-eager or embarrassing, which prompted her to wonder, really, just why was she going along with this?

 

Maybe it was the fact she’d gone without much social contact for so long, she’d jump at the chance to interact with anyone who didn’t utterly despise her, but how big of a mistake would that be? It would just end in tears, like it always did.

 

She patted the side of her jacket to check her wallet, phone and keys were still there, looking around the living room to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind, until she spotted the television.

 

She, herself, had accumulated a rather hefty collection of games over the years, but what caught her eye was her small, neatly arranged collection of Mortal Kombat games. Izayoi...had a PS2 and if memory served her correctly, he didn’t have this one on his shelf.

 

She plucked out MK3 from the shelf and slid it into her bag, before heading for the door. She didn’t bother to ask herself why or give any kind of justification to it. She was just doing it- the thinking and regret could wait for later.

 

As she was locking her apartment up, she tilted her head to spy over her shoulder at whoever had called her name.

 

“Miss Kimura! You’re back- you disappeared for a while!”

 

Oh, this woman lived with her fiancee across the hall. Whilst she couldn’t quite remember her name, she was all-around very sweet and respectful and, as an added bonus, she put the vacuum cleaner back in the closet when she’d finished with it, something a few other residents found hard.

 

“O-Oh...yeah, yeah I’m back.” She mumbled from behind her mask.

 

“Was everything okay? A blonde guy came by the other day asking for your apartment number!” She held her hands close to her chest, sporting an expression of concern as Seiko looked distinctly surprised from behind her mask.

 

Of course, Izayoi had made the trip to her apartment to get her clothes and medicine...he must’ve asked her what number she lived at.

 

“Oh, yeah he just...he was just grabbing some of my stuff for me whilst I was at his. I, uh, got a little sick while I was out.” She lied, fidgeting nervously, despite towering over the tiny woman.

 

The woman smiled cheerfully, but in a fashion that told Seiko she knew something.

 

“He...he isn’t your boyfriend, is he?”

 

“My what?!” Seiko spluttered in panic, almost dropping her bag as the woman laughed merrily. “Sorry, sorry, I just couldn’t help myself! He seemed so concerned, y’know?”

 

Seiko sighed heavily, grinning awkwardly from behind her mask to show there was no offense taken. “N-No...no, he’s just a friend, really.” She informed her, but wondered just why it was so hard to let those words leave her lips.

 

“Ohh, okay. Well tell him I said hello if you see him!” She beamed, turning around to head back to her apartment. Seiko nervously agreed, but knew she probably wouldn’t do that. After the woman closed the door, she made a mad dash for the stairs, careful not to trip over her heels on the way down. That would be ultimately the worst way to go, for her.

 

She made it down safe and sound, in the end, making her way out of the buildings doors and away to Izayoi’s shop. The sun wasn’t out, like it had been for the past few days, instead the sky was covered in a thick blanket of white cloud, just how Seiko liked it. It made everything look rather gloomy but somehow, she preferred it.

 

_‘Hey, Seiko...why’s your hair all white like that?’_

 

_Seiko looks over to an eleven-year old Izayoi. He’s sat on the bench beside Andou, who is on the phone to her mother. Seiko tilts her head, unsure of what to say, because she doesn’t quite know either…_

 

_Izayoi leans back to look up at the bright white sky, covered in thick, billowing, fluffy clouds. ‘Hey,’ he begins, ‘It kinda looks like the clouds up there.’_

 

_Seiko shrinks down into her oversized school uniform, unsure of whether what he says is a compliment or not. She watches him carefully, ‘Nobody really likes cloudy days, do they?’ She mumbles, because not once do people talk about cloudy days. It’s nice when it’s sunny, it’s sad when it’s rainy and it’s fun when it’s snowy, but there is an air of indifference to the clouds._

 

_Izayoi looks between her and the sky, before cracking a very small smile._

 

_‘I like cloudy days’._

 

Seiko almost stopped in the middle of the road, remembering such an obscure memory from a past that didn’t hold a place in the future anymore. She focused her gaze down onto her feet, as she walked.

 

…

 

As she approached the shop doors, she wondered if Izayoi, too, remembered that exchange.

 

Despite the sign saying ‘closed’ the door was wide open- she pushed on it a little too heavily, stumbling into the shop with very little grace. She flushed, adjusting her shoe strap, hoping nobody had saw her near pratfall, but when she raised her head, she spotted Izayoi standing by the counter, staring blankly at her.

 

“Are...you okay?” He asked monotonously, as if almost threatening to laugh. Seiko wanted to fold herself in half at that point, but nodded slowly.

 

“Well...they’re over here.” He murmured, turning away to a table that stood between the counter and a large rack of assorted weapons. Seiko shook off her embarrassment, vowing not to be so clumsy, especially in a room full of weapons.

 

The finished project, however, was stunning- so much so her mouth dropped open slightly. They were a bright, polished silver, with sharp blades at the very top that hooked over slightly. She watched in awe as Izayoi fearlessly picked them up, spinning them around skilfully in his hands.

 

“So. What do you think?”

 

She was at a loss for words for a moment, but she nodded frantically, clasping her hands together. “R-Really good! They look perfect!”

 

“Honestly, I’m surprised I hadn’t made these sooner.” He said, running a finger dangerously down one of the blades. “They’re often used with certain styles of Chinese martial arts but in terms of weapon design they’re actually pretty efficient.”

 

Seiko, whilst didn’t always understand Izayoi’s ramblings on weaponry, nodded in agreement, still a little dazed. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to just melt down a bit of metal and turn it into something stupidly dangerous. Well, she was sure there was more to it than that, but still…

 

“I made a kind of satchel for them. Don’t wanna walk around with them in broad daylight.” He said, bending down to pull a large, thick, cloth bag from underneath the table. He carefully slide the swords into the bag, tightened the top and experimentally slung the bag over his shoulder. “Think it looks pretty cool.”

 

“It...it does.” Seiko agreed, quietly.

 

He then held the bag out to Seiko, who stared at it with silent alarm.

 

“Well? There you go.”

 

...wait….what?

 

“I...uh, what?” She cocked her head allowing the locks of hair that usually obscured her right eye to fall down. Izayoi clucked his tongue, almost sagging on the spot. “What do you mean what? It’s yours. Take it.”

 

Seiko didn’t know where to begin, but her brain decided sputtering uselessly and waving her arms to be a good start to which Izayoi watched with some amount of amusement. “I-I-I can’t take these! I mean, they’re really good, but what am I going to do with them? I can’t use them!”

 

Izayoi chewed his lip, still holding the bag out at arms length, “Use it for wall decoration. Seriously, just take them. I mean...I made them for you after all.” His voice suspiciously dropped in volume towards the end of his sentence. Seiko faltered for a moment. He made them for her? Didn’t he say that he was only making them because he had nothing else to do?

 

She hesitantly took the bag, clutching it close to her body like a treasured item. Her knees knocked against one another as she shivered, now unsure of what to say.

 

“Th...thank you.”

 

He shrugged, oddly. “It’s no big deal.”

 

They stood in awkward silence for longer than either of them would’ve liked, bringing both of them to the realisation that the situation at hand was reminiscent of two awkward teenagers crushing on one another, but never wanting to make the first move.

 

Of course, they’d never admit that aloud.

 

“O-Oh, that reminds me…” Seiko murmured, prompted to bring the game out of her bag by the lack of conversation. “I noticed you didn’t have this one on your shelf, so...did you want to play it?”

 

She held up the box for MK3, to which Izayoi’s eyes slowly lit up. He chewed his lip, glancing up at the clock above the door. Andou would be home much later tonight, but they still had time. Finally, he nodded, “Sure, sounds good.”

 

Seiko left the bag with the swords propped up by the door leading up to the apartment, following Izayoi up the stairs. Returning back to the apartment was strange, it was eerily familiar and now had a distinguishable scent of...Izayoi.

 

She hadn’t realised it before but she picked that strong scent up for the first time when she was being carried home. She didn’t really remember much of that period of time but that scent stuck out more than anything.

 

She sat on the couch patiently as Izayoi hooked the games console back up to the TV, taking the game's case from Seiko and inserting the disc carefully. Seiko politely removed her shoes, placing them next to the coffee table. Being back here was incredibly strange.

 

“Uh, thanks for bringing this over. I haven’t played it.” Izayoi muttered, awkwardly, as he sat on the couch and handed the second controller over to Seiko. She cracked a timid smile under her mask, “No worries.”

 

They set up a match, choosing their characters quickly and waited for the loading screen to pass. The situation wasn’t exactly awkward per se, but it wasn’t all too comfortable. Izayoi knew he was gonna get it bad if Andou suddenly appeared home, wondering just what he should do if that worst-case scenario were to arise.

 

He was snapped out of his thoughts as the match started, giving Seiko the advantage as she immediately got the first hit in.

 

Needless to say, she won that match and the seven matches that followed until Izayoi claimed his late yet rightful victory. She gave him a quiet clap of appreciation.

 

“You’re getting better.” She offered, and Izayoi rolled his eyes, but cracked a very tiny smile.

 

“Maybe you’re just losing your touch.” He teased, but was surprised when Seiko didn’t fidget in response like she always did or shoot back an insult. Instead, her eyes were fixed onto the lower half of his face- go figure considering she wasn’t the best with eye contact- yet somehow she looked quite solemn.

 

“Not like you to put yourself down.” She commented quietly, restarting the match with new characters. Of all the words to escape her mask-covered lips, Izayoi hadn’t expected those to be them, it genuinely took him by surprise, something he didn’t experience often.

 

“I...wasn’t really putting myself down.” He reasoned, now feeling rather awkward for saying so, considering it was meant to be a jab at her, but ended up being interpreted in an entirely different way. “Maybe not directly,” She murmured, eyes fixed onto the television, “but you shouldn’t reject a compliment you deserve.” He’d always been a subtle person, so he wouldn’t be openly self-deprecating, but he’d always enjoyed a victory after hard work, so seeing him push it away was almost concerning.

 

“Hypocrite you are.” He deflected in a tone that could be read as smug, though his face was deadly serious. “You’ve always been terrible at taking praise.”

 

Seiko had the decency to act somewhat embarrassed by this. “I...I guess so…” She wasn’t all too sure of what to say, he was right after all.

 

“It’s alright.” He said, as if to fill in the blank of silence. “You’ll get used to it. Your skills are worth the praise…” He said, muttering a quiet, “I think…” afterwards.

 

They started a new match.

 

“How’ve things been anyway?” He asked, casually, “After all of that.” Seiko gave a light shrug, gently tapping her feet together. “Alright, I guess...still haven’t gone to the police.”

 

“You really don’t have to if you don’t want to. I mean...people are speaking up about incidents that happened ten or fifteen years ago, y’know.” He remarked, remembering how many news stories he’d watched about egotistical celebrities fatally falling from grace for something they’d tried to cover up years ago.

 

“Yeah, but that’s mainly famous people. If it’s just some ordinary person like me they’ll just say I was stupid for not coming forward sooner.” She responded, sullenly and Izayoi was agitated at how correct her words really were.

 

“I’m not always in favour of the authorities…” He added, which Seiko could understand, coming from the man who kept roughly two-hundred weapons in his apartment alone. “Justice doesn’t exist in a world like this.” She grunted, rather cynically, more so than Izayoi had ever seen before.

 

“I guess if you really fight for it you can find it.” He shrugged, and after not receiving an immediate response, he looked over to Seiko only to realise the mistake in his words. Her expression was overwhelmingly peeved from under her mask and he hung his head slightly.

 

“Okay, I...kind of walked into that one.” He admitted, and Seiko hummed in disapproval.

 

“But…” she began, “I guess it could be true.” After all, things were different now that Izayoi was leaning a tiny bit more towards her side, not believing her to be responsible for the bombing incident.

 

When she looked back up to meet her gaze, he had a ghost of a smile on his lips, but that was more than enough for her.

 

She’d never really paid an extreme amount of attention to Izayoi during their childhood, so it was only now did she really get to know him, or at least, get to know him better. He’d always been a stoic and nothing had changed from that, but he’d always given off the impression of a mindless drone who did everything for Andou, good or bad. She could see clearly now he was wavering slightly in his thought process and she wondered if he really thought about what she said…

 

“Are you okay?”

 

Izayoi took a moment to register her question, longer than Seiko thought was necessary, which might’ve been concerning. “Yeah...yeah, I’m okay. You?”

 

“Better,” She smiled, “Did you solve what was troubling you in the end?”

 

“Not...not really.” He almost winced. “I haven’t really thought much about it.” He held the controller loosely in his hands. “I don’t really know what to think but...I really love Ruruka.”

 

“Why are you telling me this?” She raised an eyebrow. Izayoi looked alarmed at her strange expression, “What do you mean?”

 

“Whenever we talk about this, you always tell me you love her. It’s...it’s not wrong to love someone who does bad things you know.” She told him, “Bad people are still people, but...the way you always tell me that you love her, like you have nothing else to say, just feels like...it feels like you doubt that I believe you.”

 

He very slowly tilted his head. “I...doubt you?”

 

“Well, yeah. You tell me like I don’t believe you but now it’s starting to seem like you’re convincing yourself that you love her.” She pointed out, “I still think you love her, you always have, but...maybe now that you’re beginning to separate from her instead of being some kind of fucking hivemind, it’s making you feel like you don’t love her anymore.”

 

“I do!” He shot back as quickly as Seiko had finished and Seiko sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Yeah, see, you did it again. I know you love her, but I guess when you stop being so blind to her, you’re not as completely infatuated with her as before. You can love someone without having to agree to everything they do and side with them on everything.” She cleared her throat, “I mean, that’s what you’re doing now.”

 

He looked down to the floor, feeling a lump forming in his throat. That was true, he didn’t think Seiko was responsible for the past but he still loved Andou with all his heart, yet somehow it felt like...he felt like a traitor.

 

“I feel like a traitor.” He repeated his thoughts aloud, and Seiko nodded. “Well, of course you do. You’re not used to disagreeing with her...plus, she really likes to lay it on thick when things don’t go her way. If she calls you a traitor for anything, you shouldn’t believe her.”

 

He chewed his lip so hard it drew blood. He’d never want to betray Andou, he wanted to be there for her always, but why did it feel so different now?

 

“Do you feel like a traitor because I’m here?”

 

He slowly nodded.

 

“I see.” Seiko mused, “Well, that’s not true. I mean, think about it...the reason I’m here is because,” she suddenly paused, wondering if it was really the right thing to say, “well, I guess it would mean we’re friends?”

 

Izayoi rested his chin on his hands. “I...guess so.” I mean, enemies didn’t play Mortal Kombat or make weapons for each other, did they? It wasn’t even as if Izayoi hated her anymore. She’d changed quite a bit since they left high school, but he was seeing new sides to her. He liked their mutual interest in video games, he liked how oddly articulate she could be and, though he didn’t like to admit it, he really did like how fascinated she was with his weapons. The novelty had worn off for Andou long ago, but she sometimes sat around the shop and watched him at work.

 

So, all in all, he guessed that meant he enjoyed her company? He didn’t feel such intense dislike for her anymore, so there was that, but it was nice because they shared interests that he and Andou didn’t. It was a nice change for a little while, but it still felt so wrong.

 

“You know you’re allowed to have friends right?”

 

Hearing it said aloud didn’t feel all that great, he knew Andou wasn’t stopping him from having friends but...he’d never really had his own. His friends in the past were just friendships that had started with Andou, and most of those had died off too. He was hardly a social butterfly, and didn’t always get along with Andou’s friends, but the thought of having his own friends, friends that weren’t always a byproduct of his girlfriends relationships was...actually really nice.

 

“Never really gone out and looked for friends.” He said, muffled by the cover of his hand. “I just stick with Ruruka.”

 

“Yeah, I know.” Seiko muttered, pointedly. “But you don’t always have to. You’re free to have your own friends and if she’s going to stop you then that’s...bad.”

 

“Is it?”

 

Seiko couldn’t quite hide her disbelieving expression, even from behind her mask. Izayoi seemed quite serious, but after gauging her reaction, he understood that, actually, it was pretty bad.

 

“I’m happy with Ruruka, though. I’m not really into having lots of friends.” He reasoned, staring off into the corner of the room, as if deep in thought. Seiko shrugged, “Well...neither am I, but I...kind of like playing video games with you.” She spoke quite slowly, as if her words were treading on thin ice, but with no sudden explosive reaction from Izayoi, she deemed her words were safe.

 

“That...makes us friends then.” Izayoi stated, but rather unsurely, as if testing to see if Seiko agreed. He relaxed when she nodded quietly. “Guess it does.”

 

“But you and Ruruka aren’t friends.”

 

“No. Sorry, but I’m not doing that again.” She sighed, hunching over and resting her elbows on her knees. “If it makes you feel better I won’t be rude about her but I can’t like her.”

 

He grunted, but agreed. It was fair enough, he decided. Whilst he didn’t like associating with people who didn’t treat Andou with respect, he at least respected Seiko’s offer to keep civil about it.

 

“I still don’t really want Andou to find out though.” She added, “I mean...I don’t want to have to see her again but it doesn’t seem like it would end well for you.” She seemed quite sympathetic of Izayoi’s position. “It’s alright.” He responded, “Me and Andou have been together since the very beginning. I know she’d understand if she found out.”

 

Somehow, it felt like he was trying to convince himself, but he didn’t want to doubt his girlfriend. She was always so good to him, but it had to be okay if he was friends with Seiko, right?

 

For a split second, he really believed it would be okay, until the pair heard the slam of a door, followed by a “Yoi~! I’m back!”

 

There was a moment of shared horror, where the two made very slow eye contact, until they realised the situation they were in. Seiko jumped up, almost knocking the coffee table over as she grabbed her shoes, whilst Izayoi rushed to the door to greet his girlfriend, and absolutely not to obscure Seiko from her view.

 

In a mad panic, Seiko dashed towards their bedroom, hearing Andou’s heels clicking loudly against the stairs. She could hear the muffled sounds of them embracing, and Andou talking about how her day went.

 

Without much else of an option, Seiko carefully slid the window open. The roof where the shop jutted out below provided a good escape route, especially if she could make the terrifying leap over to the streetlamp pole and climb down. She desperately wanted to do anything else but this, stunts were in no way her forte but she didn’t have a choice.

 

She carefully dangled herself out of the window, before dropping with a loud thud onto the roof below, hoping nobody else would’ve heard the noise. Wearing heels whilst walking on a roof was terrifying- she silently wished she’d just thrown her shoes out of the window, but there was no time for that. She took a shaky breath, before leaning out and grabbing the streetlamp.

 

Well, it really wasn’t the most ideal situation, but with enough courage, she pulled her legs over, almost sliding down the pole and falling. She fearfully clung to the pole, desperately attempting to regain her breath, as she inched slowly down and down.

 

The moment she reached the floor, she promptly collapsed to her knees, thankful to be alive. She didn’t know how people could do things like base-jumping or abseiling. She was happy to safely keep her life thank you very much.

 

But there wasn’t much time to sit outside the shop- if Andou so much as looked out of the bedroom window, she would be spotted. She shakily got to her feet and ran off in the direction of home.

 

Meanwhile, Izayoi was desperately trying to steer Andou away from their bedroom, but when he peered in, Seiko was gone, with only an open window as proof of her existence and her escape. He sighed with relief and closed the door, until--

 

“Hey...Yoi?”

 

“What is it?”

 

He turned around to see Andou pointing down to the two abandoned controllers hooked up to the PS2, where MK3 was still running.

 

“Who were you playing against?”

 

* * *

 

Seiko was still breathless by the time she reached her apartment, as she fiddled to jam the key into the lock. After a brief conflict with the front door, she finally entered and flopped down on the couch.

 

Christ, that was intense.

 

It was only now did she realise, with disappointment, that she’d left the hookswords back at Izayoi’s shop, but ignored the hopefulness she felt when her brain told her it would be another excuse to meet up with him again.

 

Though the thought irked her. She’d spent so long hating Andou and seemed to hate Izayoi even more for following her every step without a thought in his head but now all of a sudden, they were...friends? Had she jumped into yet another risky friendship that would most likely end in tears and distrust like before?

 

The answer was probably, but right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

 

She didn’t even jump when her phone buzzed, but she did hurry to pick it up, wondering what Izayoi’s situation was at the moment. Hopefully Andou hadn’t made the connection just yet…

 

_‘did you make it home safely? i saw the window was open’_

 

She curled up onto the sofa, feeling deeply pleased by the fact Izayoi cared enough to ask, which probably wasn’t a huge amount to begin with, but it was a start.

 

_‘i’m fine what about you?’_

 

She absentmindedly switched on the television, letting it drone on in the background as she shoehorned her shoes off with her foot, kicking them over by the door.

 

_‘okay. she didnt notice the open window but we left the game on. she asked who i was playing against.’_

 

Seiko swallowed thickly, that can’t be good. As much as she disliked Andou, she was far, far from stupid.

 

_‘did she find out?’_

 

It was obvious they wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. Andou had a knack for sniffing this kind of thing out, and as much as Izayoi could say she would be okay with it, she really wouldn’t be.

 

_‘no. i told her i was playing with myself’_

 

Seiko read the message. She read it again and again until it set into her brain that Izayoi had actually, physically texted her those words. She laughed aloud, covering her mouth with her hand. Did he really type that out?

 

_‘im sorry you were what?’_

 

The haste of Izayoi’s reply screamed he’d realised his mistake.

 

_‘fuck against i meant agaisnt i told her i was playing with a controller in each hand’_

 

She grinned childishly, curling up further into a ball as her fingers deftly typed.

 

_‘one in each hand? how many do you have?????’_

 

_‘you know i really didnt pin you for the dirty joke type’_

 

She gave a muffled giggle, as she rested her head on her knees. She guessed being so quiet all the time, Izayoi wasn’t always used to using the right words on the spot but she didn’t think it would lead to such an awful joke.

 

_‘sorry sorry. did she believe you?’_

 

_‘i think so...i hope so’_

 

She sighed, relaxing back into the sofa. Well, she supposed that was the perks of being Izayoi, Andou would be more inclined to believe him over anyone.

 

_‘i just remembered, i left the swords at your house….whoops’_

 

_‘it’s okay. ill find a time to drop them and the game off at your house soon. sorry about that.’_

 

She pulled her mask down around her neck, her lips twitching into an awkward smile. Somehow, this was a strange, stressful yet nice situation to be in but…

 

...who knows when Izayoi would betray her. What if Andou found out and he suddenly came out with some wild accusation to deflect the blame onto her? Andou would most certainly blame her for ‘trying to steal her boyfriend’ or something anyway…

 

For a moment, she faltered.

 

_‘It’s okay. you can keep the game if you like.’_

 

She dropped her phone onto the table, climbing out of her fetal position and stalking off towards the bathroom to take another shower- she needed to find a way to relax after whatever the hell that little situation was about, but she couldn’t hear the sound of her phone buzzing through the heavy sound of the shower running.

 

_‘really? is that okay?’_

 

_‘thanks a lot seiko :)’_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> she may suck at parkour but she's the queen of innuendo don't try and tell me otherwise


	7. Embracing a Friendship

Izayoi woke up the next day with an unexpected start, but when he properly came to his senses, he realised the girl lying under his arm was just Andou. For a moment he thought it might’ve been....

 

Though as it turned out, Andou was already awake, lazily scrolling through her phone, but after feeling Izayoi jump so suddenly, she looked up at him with adorable concern. “Yoi? Are you okay?”

 

He wasn’t quite sure what to say for a moment, because technically, he wasn’t okay, but he nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

 

Andou beamed, pushing herself closer to Izayoi and wrapping her arms around her. “Yup! I don’t have much to do today, so I think I might sleep in a little more.” She pressed her face into her shoulder, mimicking sleeping and Izayoi’s smile deepened as he pulled her close.

 

“What about you? Are you busy today?”

 

Truthfully, he wasn’t. He had no orders to take care of- he could open the shop if he was looking for something to do but…

 

...he still had to return Seiko’s game and weapons to her. Was today the best day to do that? It wasn’t like he was avoiding Andou, they’d spent the past day or two together, with the exception of her going off to see her parents for a little bit.

 

He was going to be honest, he didn’t like Andou’s parents, but she adored them, so he had no room for complaint.

 

“Yoi?”

 

Izayoi chewed his lip, now aware that he’d been thinking for longer than was really necessary, but in the end, “I’m not too busy, but…” He decided to take the plunge, seeing how Andou would react.

 

“I have a project I wanted to take over for a new friend of mine.”

 

He curled his toes, as a form of bracing himself, but he didn’t look down at Andou’s expression, until she pushed herself up and kissed his cheek. “Aw, Yoi~! You’ve been making friends while I was gone?”

 

He flushed slightly, at least she wasn’t immediately suspicious, if anything she seemed happy for him, though she did pout afterward, “Does this mean you have to go now? Can’t you stay now and then go later on?”

 

He gently stroked her hair, weaving his fingers through the thin, silky strands and for a moment, thought of how wiry and offensive Seiko’s hair was. What a weird comparison, they really were opposites in every way.

 

“Course I can.” He said, prompting Andou to snuggle back up under his arm- he knew he would be lying here for quite a while now.

 

“So,” Andou began in an authoritative voice, “tell me about this new friend of yours! Is he nice?”

 

He ignored the fact Andou referred incorrectly to the person in question, but shortly decided that was probably better. “Well, um...guess they’ve been taking an interest in my weapons and asked me to make something. We got talking and it turned out we have a few similar interests.”

 

“Like video games?” Andou added, and Izayoi snorted. “Yeah, like video games.”

 

She laid back further, stretching her legs out under the thin blankets. “Well that’s good. I don’t really like playing those games, so it’s cool you have someone else to play with instead.” and for a moment, Izayoi was disappointed, because all he ever really wanted was to spend time with Andou. Of course, he wasn’t going to force her to do something she didn’t like, but…

 

The train of thought was missing a distinct ending and he vowed to bring it up to Seiko another time so she could answer that for him.

 

Still, Andou was happy he’d found a way to share his interests with someone, and that made him happy.

 

“Soooo, when do I get to meet this guy, huh? I don’t want some sleazy jerk hanging around my Yoi!” As if to emphasise her overprotectiveness, she flung her arms around him once more. Whilst Izayoi appreciated the concern Andou held, he was panicking because what was he supposed to do now? They could definitely not meet- no way.

 

“Um…” He struggled to find an answer before blurting out, “T-They were, um...attacked recently. It was pretty bad and that’s how we, uh, became friends because...I chased away the attackers and, uh...took them to the hospital.”

 

“Huh? That’s terrible- he’s in the hospital now?” Andou put a dainty hand to her mouth in surprise, “That sucks! Is he okay?”

 

“Yeah, it wasn’t really serious, but it was still pretty traumatic I think. They’re at home now but they’re a little bit afraid of going out...meeting new people, y’know.” He shrugged, smiling oddly and hoping he was coming across as convincing because this was the first time he’d had to lie to Andou and he was no good at it.

 

“Wow, my Yoi is amazing!” She giggled, playfully kicking her legs back and forth, “He’s so lucky you rescued him! Still...I kinda wish I’d get to meet him.” She puffed her cheeks out in disappointment- Izayoi snaked his hand around to her waist. “It’s okay,” he assured, “maybe one day you can but for a while, they just need time to themselves.”

 

“So you’re going to drop all that stuff to their house today?”

 

“Probably, yeah. I’ve kind of been checking up on them since the attack and stuff…” He trailed, speaking softly, and Andou smiled very widely, proud that her boyfriend was such a caring, kind person.

 

“Alright, but come home soon, okay? The guy may have been attacked but I’m not giving up my Yoi to anyone!” She laughed, shifting herself so she was curled up atop Izayoi’s chest. He smiled, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

 

“Well, then...guess I do have something to do today!” She remarked, brightly, “I’m gonna make my special sweets just for you, okay?” 

 

Izayoi’s eyes lit up. “You’d do that for me?” He murmured, a smile playing on his lips. “I’m excited now.” Andou leant up to press another kiss to his cheek. “Good! It’ll take a while, so you can spend time with your new friend while you’re out!”

 

Izayoi returned the kiss, now wondering just why Seiko thought so negatively of her. She was always so good to him, but it made him feel worse that he was going to see Seiko of all people. If Andou found out, she’d think he’d betrayed her by seeing her nemesis behind her back. He couldn’t have that…

 

Maybe...he’d tell Seiko that when he saw her.

  
  


* * *

 

Seiko didn’t wake up until gone noon, startled into consciousness by the buzzing coming from her phone.

 

_ ‘i told ruruka i made a friend but didn’t say it was you. she was pretty happy for me.’ _

 

_ ‘also i’m outside’ _

 

Seiko started vacantly at the messages, feeling three different kinds of dread mix inside her stomach. She had too many questions for him, but it was only when she saw the time of the messages did she finally, outwardly panic. He was outside? Now?

 

That realisation prompted a hearty knock on the door and she desperately wanted to shrink into her duvet and disappear. Instead, she quickly put on her slippers and dressing gown and made her way to the door, tripping over every single piece of furniture on the way.

 

She opened the door, breathless and red-faced, to Izayoi who watched her blankly.

 

“Uh. I didn’t wake you up did I?”

 

She sagged slightly on the spot, covering her mouth with her hand- she’d forgotten her mask too. “It’s okay,” she assured, “Come in...I guess.” She held the door open for him and he stepped on through, propping the bag with the hookswords up by the door. 

 

“Sorry for intruding. I have a bit of free time now, Andou wanted to make me something special for when I got home.”

 

Seiko, displeased at the mention of Andou, merely shrugged, but offered him a seat on the couch. “Do you want some tea?” 

 

Izayoi politely refused, but noticed how restless she seemed. “Are you okay?”

 

She made a noise of uncertainty. “Uh...mm...I guess so. I mean-- you told Andou about me?” She flopped down on the couch, spreading her arms as if to silently ask ‘what gives?’

 

Izayoi sighed. “I didn’t really want to lie to her about where I’d be going. I just told her I made a new friend, but I kept it vague. There’s no way she could figure out it was you.”

 

Seiko wasn’t sure what to make of this, but resigned herself to just collapsing backwards on the couch. “That’s...scary.” She muttered.

 

“Still...I...I don’t really know if I can keep this up.” Izayoi forced the words out of his mouth, he had to say it someway or another, but he didn’t expected Seiko to suddenly sit upright.

 

“You...what do you mean by that?” She asked suspiciously, but her eyes were wide and unblinking, so much so Izayoi was afraid to look directly into them.

 

He’d thought about it on his way over. He couldn’t bring himself to lie to Andou, and he knew she would be just heartbroken if she found out his new friend was Seiko of all people. How was he supposed to deal with that?

 

He decided he shouldn’t.

 

“It just seems...I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a good idea anymore. I don’t want her to find out but if she does she’ll be so upset. I can’t let that happen.”

 

For a moment, everything felt very cold for Seiko.

 

“So...you’re just...leaving me alone now?”

 

He ignored how small and quiet her voice was now, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “I...guess so, yeah. I just think it would be better for the both of us. You can still keep the hookswords. I did make them for you, but we shouldn’t be friends.”

 

He stared at the floor, trying to gauge Seiko’s reaction through sound, but when the room remained deathly silent, he dared to look up. He wished he hadn’t.

 

Her eyes were brimming with big tears, threatening to spill over as her mouth contorted oddly. She’d...she’d let this happen, how could she have let this happen? She knew full well this would’ve ended badly, so why did she even try? This was all her fault to begin with and now she was crying about it, crying over someone she’d only gotten close to for three days, how pathetic was that?

 

Izayoi did not like making girls cry. He felt a stab of guilt, but told himself it was for the better- it was for Andou and that’s all that mattered to him.

 

That was all that mattered to him...wasn’t it?

 

Seiko leant over, curling her awkward frame around her knees, covering her face, hoping he wouldn’t see her cry. Cry? Over him? Stupid. She was stupid, this whole fucking situation was shit stupid and she’d let it happen, all because of  _ her _ .

 

“Um...I’m sorry.”

 

“Shut up. You aren’t fucking sorry.” Seiko growled, and Izayoi was disappointed, but not surprised at the hostility. “You...you never wanted to be friends did you? You just felt sorry for me because of what happened!”

 

He opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

 

“And n-now that everything’s okay again you...you’re just going to leave.”

 

She gripped tightly around her ankles, her fingernails pushing into the skin, but for some reason she couldn’t quite feel it. It felt numbed, but the only thing she could really feel was the sickening sensation in her stomach.

 

“I...I wasn’t friends with you out of pity.” He defended. “I was friends with you because I wanted to be.”

 

“So why are you leaving me? You’re not leaving because it’s your choice, you’re leaving because it’s what’ll make  _ her _ happy!” She shot back, now feeling utterly betrayed. She fucking jumped out of a window to keep this away from Andou, did that not count for anything? She wished she really had fell from the lamppost.

 

“I told you...I just want her to be happy.” He said, but his expression was sad.

 

“You...you don’t get it, you shouldn’t do things to make her happy when they go against what you want! You wanted to be friends, but now you don’t because she wouldn’t like it!”

 

He gave a strange kind of forceful sigh, “I...guess,” He knew Seiko wouldn’t really understand what he felt. She’d never been that close to anybody before, but the look on her face, without the mask for one, was...it hurt. It hurt and it hurt bad.

 

“And you’re willing to fuck other people over for that too…” She remarked, lowly.

 

“Look, I’m not trying to make an enemy out of you. I’m just saying…” He trailed, unable to piece together what he was trying to tell her.

 

“And I’m telling you, it doesn’t have to be that way. If...If she really, actually loved you, she wouldn’t stop you from being friends with me if that’s what made you happy. If you’re the only one trying to make her happy and she doesn’t do the same then...what does that mean?”

 

“She does try and make me happy.” Izayoi shivered slightly. Seiko’s glare was icy, but her cheeks were wet with tears.

 

“Aside from sweets. What does she sacrifice to make you happy?”

 

He swallowed thickly, thinking back to earlier. He’d felt so disappointed that Andou didn’t want to play video games with him, so much so she was happy to let him go and find someone else to do that with, but that wasn’t what he wanted. He’d wanted to play with her, without her just watching him play, they were a couple after all, but he’d found himself enjoying his time playing with Seiko too…

 

Was...was it so hard for her to do that for him? 

 

“She doesn’t have to sacrifice anything.” He said, finally, because she really didn’t. He didn’t want Andou to sacrifice anything for him. Seiko’s head dropped slightly, her curls bouncing but somehow limp now, to match her mood. “So what you’re saying is that she doesn’t sacrifice anything for you. I’m...not saying she has to.” Her voice was quiet and flat, unfeeling.

 

“But you have to sacrifice a friendship you want to make her happy. Where’s the fairness in that? How would that truly make you happy…?” She pushed herself up to her feet, trudging over to the window. “If you really want to go then go. If that’s...what makes you happy in the end.”

 

He was torn now, unable to decide what to do. He knew he should go home, forget this happened and go back to Andou. That was how it should be, it was the safest option for the both of them but...he desperately, desperately wanted to stay.

 

He wasn’t going to lie to himself. He wanted to be friends with Seiko, she wasn’t anything like Andou had said. She wasn’t a liar, she was surprisingly level-headed whilst still being a little bit awkward, endearingly so, and she...she was willing to let him go now.

 

Even though it was hurting her, he could see from the tears on her cheeks, she was telling him to go if it was what made him happy.

 

He watched her for a few moments, feeling nothing but ice in his gut. She was covering her face with her hands again, trying to stifle her hiccups. She’d regretted letting this happen and he’d regretted making this happen. Is this what he really wanted?

 

His face gradually shifted into an expression of displeasure, because the conclusion he’d come to wasn’t the one he wanted. It wasn’t the one he wanted to believe.

 

Andou wouldn’t even play a video game with him...but Seiko, who he’d rescued that night and had been closer to for three days was letting him go.

 

He cursed himself for even thinking that- Andou was the sweetest girl he’d ever met, but…

 

He swallowed thickly, because in his mind, it felt like choosing between the girl he loved and the girl he’d only just gotten to know. He knew he should always choose Andou over anybody else but...Seiko was right, if Andou did love him, and knew it made him happy to be Seiko’s friend, then it shouldn’t matter right? She wouldn’t leave him because of that, would she?

 

“It’s...okay. You don’t have to get so worked up about it.”

 

Seiko forcefully wiped her eyes of tears, forcing an awkward smile that just looked upsetting. “I know you love Andou...it’s not my place to make you choose anyone over her anyway. I don’t know what I expected, I knew this wouldn’t last but...guess it was fun anyway.”

 

Her voice broke every now and then and she didn’t know why she was forcing herself to smile, it hurt so bad and she just wanted it to be gone and over already. She didn’t want to come between him and the girl he loved. She wasn’t like that, she may have hated Andou with every fibre of her being but she liked Izayoi more than that.

 

“I...don’t really know what else to say without sounding pathetic.” She mumbled, the situation was horribly cliche and dramatic, not something she really enjoyed, “...but you should do what makes you the happiest. I really wanna tell you not to just...not to do everything for her, but I’m not going to stop you if that’s what you want.”

 

She gave a bittersweet smile, wrapping her arms around herself. “You can keep the game too. Think of it as a gift from me.”

 

…

 

For a moment, Seiko didn’t quite understand what was happening. The cold feeling of dread that spread over her skin had been replaced with something comforting and warm, and that scent...the one she remembered from that night. She felt her legs go limp.

 

Izayoi was stood with his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her close as she unintentionally buried her face into his chest. This...this might’ve been the first proper hug she’d had.

 

She desperately tried to keep it in, she really did, but before she knew it the floodgates opened and she sobbed into Izayoi’s chest, clutching at his shirt and whimpering.

 

Izayoi, on the other hand, had no idea what he was doing. He’d done this on an impulse- he didn’t want to see Seiko so sad, or her force herself to act happy just for him, just like he wouldn’t want Andou to.

 

Andou would be positively betrayed if he knew he was hugging Seiko of all people but right now...right now he didn’t care.

 

He did not care. 

 

All he cared for right now, was the girl breaking down in his arms. He could cross whatever hurdles stood in his way when he got to them. He was sure now, Andou wouldn’t leave him for just being friends with Seiko. That was ridiculous, wasn’t it? They loved each other after all, they wouldn’t let something like that get in the way of it.

 

“I’m...sorry.” He mumbled, feeling guilty for having creating this situation.

 

“You...still want to be my friend?” She whined, sounding rather hopeful now, because really, she didn’t have much else in the way of friends and with the way she was feeling now, she didn’t care about how pathetic and awful she must’ve looked now.

 

She just wanted someone- anyone. That was the whole reason she was so upset, after all.

 

“Of course I do.” He said, quietly. “I...I never not wanted to be your friend. I just didn’t want to put anything at risk…” He didn’t want either of them to leave, but the situation was so horribly volatile that a wrong move could destroy everything.

 

“What...what made you change your mind?”

 

He didn’t want to say that maybe, maybe Seiko was right. Not about Andou being a bad person, he could never agree with that, but maybe the relationship wasn’t as perfect and normal as he would’ve thought...those things didn’t make Andou bad, not in the slightest, but he understood now where Seiko was coming from.

 

“I think you might’ve...been right about a few things. I don’t want to be selfish or do anything that would upset Andou but…” He didn’t need to say the rest for Seiko to understand.

 

“Sorry...it feels like I’ve guilted you into being my friend by crying or something…” She muttered lowly and he sighed with exasperation. “Don’t be stupid, I don’t get guilted into things.”

 

Seiko reeled back and stared up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Is that right? Are you sure about that?”

 

“Hey, I didn’t do it out of guilt, y’know. I did it for Andou.” Izayoi said defensively, wondering why he was still holding Seiko the way he was, but she didn’t seem to complain and honestly...neither did he.

 

Seiko decided not to mention that it probably was out of guilt.

 

“Still...don’t really know what you see in me as a friend. Not that I’m complaining.” She mumbled, wiping her eyes. The years of loneliness had suddenly taken their toll on her and the thought of losing the only actual friend she had, someone she began to enjoy talking to, hurt much more than she expected. She felt utterly embarrassed having suddenly broken like that.

 

“Well...I get why Ruruka has such a bad opinion of you but I don’t really see it. I mean...I dunno, really, I never thought about it before.” He settled on shifting the topic away, not wanting to openly say that actually, he thought she was very sweet and endearing.

 

“It’s okay...if you want to go home now, you can. You didn’t have to come over…” She pulled away, and Izayoi felt hyperaware of how cold his chest was all of a sudden, he was almost disappointed.

 

“Well I made the journey over. Might as well play a game or two while I’m here.” 

 

Izayoi took a seat on the couch whilst Seiko set up her games console- he felt for his phone, he should probably give Andou a call and tell her when he’d be back and also just to check how she was doing, but...where was it?

 

“Uh, you haven’t seen my phone around, have you?”

 

Seiko looked up from where she was crouched on the floor- where did she get that mask from? “Uh, no? Do you want me to call it to see if it’s around here?”

 

He continued to check his pockets, “Uh, sure, yeah.”

 

Seiko fished her phone out of her pocket with one hand and finished setting up her own PS2 with the other, stalking over to the sofa with the controllers as she held the phone to her ear.

 

“It’s ringing…” She murmured, trying to listen for the sound of his ringtone, but the apartment remained silent. “Maybe you left it at home?”

 

“Ah…” He hummed, “Probably. Guess I’ll find it when I get home. I won’t stick around for too long anyway.” He took the controller, flicking through the menu whilst Seiko hung up, placing the phone on the table. “Alright...well seeing as you brought the hookswords with you, I guess I should play Kabal.” She said, now brighter than before.

 

Izayoi grinned without really realising it, “You’re on.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Meanwhile, Andou was struck out of her cooking zone to the sound of Izayoi’s phone ringing. That was weird, did he leave it behind?

 

She set the bowl down onto the counter, striding off into the living room to find the source of the ringing, but by the time she managed to find the phone- stuck down the side of the couch- the ringing had stopped. She checked the phone.

 

_ -1 missed call from Egg Fried Rice- _

 

Her eyebrows slowly rose in confusion. Who the hell was Egg Fried Rice? What kind of nickname was that? Yoi could be so strange sometimes, it was cute, but she wondered just who this person was.

 

Ohh, this was probably the new friend he made the other day! But why was he calling his phone if he was already over there?

 

“Yoi must’ve left his phone here, that silly.” She hummed, but wondered where the nickname had come from, not to mention he must’ve saved this number onto his phone if it had a nickname...

 

…

 

She knew she shouldn’t really, but she was so curious to who this new guy was. She really didn’t want her Yoi hanging around with the wrong crowd, even though she knew he was smart enough to keep himself safe. Nonetheless…

 

She went into his contact list and scrolled through, smiling at her own phone number labelled ‘Sweet Ruruka’ until she reached, uh…’Egg Fried Rice’ as weird as that was. She clicked on the message button, looking for any texts he’d sent, only to find two sent from Izayoi. 

 

Two messages sent only from Izayoi, and none others, was weird enough on its own but reading them made Andou’s blood run stone cold.

  
  


_ ‘really? is that okay?’ _

 

_ ‘thanks a lot seiko :)’ _

  
  


Seiko...that Seiko.  _ That Seiko. _

 

_ Yoi was hanging out with Kimura Seiko. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's going down
> 
> come follow me on tumblr @ unavoidablekoishi lets be friends


	8. Underhanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> good guy sakakura is a good dad

Izayoi returned home about an hour later, shuffling into the apartment, kicking off his shoes. “Babe?” He called, spotting his phone sitting on the coffee table; he swiped it and put it in his pocket.

 

Concerned by the lack of an answer, he wandered into the kitchen- Andou was hunched over the counter reading a recipe book. “Ruruka?”

 

“Oh, Yoi, you’re back.” She mumbled, without really turning around. “Did you have fun?”

 

He paused, unsure of what to make of Andou’s sudden sullen mood, but replied with a ‘yeah’ anyway. She didn’t make much of a move to greet him any further, continuing to flick through the recipe book. 

 

He decided hugging her from behind to be the best solution. “I’m happier to come back to you. Sorry for being gone so long.” He murmured, pressing his face into her shoulder and taking in her familiar, soothing scent. She sighed, unable to resist sinking backwards into him, but her mouth was still set in a grim line.

 

She decided to force a cheery smile. “It’s okay, I get you all to myself now!”

 

Izayoi relaxed- maybe she was just a little tired. That was alright, he’d do whatever he could to cheer her up now.

 

“Oh, Yoi, your phone rang when you were gone. You forgot it again, didn’t you?”

 

Izayoi’s hands tensed up, gripping at Andou’s hips, as he struggled for a response. He didn’t want to lie to her, he couldn’t do that...maybe there was a way of just telling a half-truth?

 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I borrowed their phone to try and find mine but I didn’t realise I left it here.” He chuckled, sheepishly, playing it off fairly well, or so he thought. Andou smiled, but there was very little humour to her eyes. “I wondered who ‘Egg Fried Rice’ was. What’s with that nickname anyway?”

 

He swallowed thickly. “They gave me a recipe for really good egg fried rice to make whilst you were gone. Guess they wanted me to eat something a little more decent than just plain rice and vegetables.”

 

Andou felt her temple throb slightly, but forced down the grim expression that threatened to appear on her face. This couldn’t be happening...maybe it was a different Seiko? Maybe this was all one big misunderstanding? 

 

She couldn’t risk that. She’d been stabbed in the back by so many people, she wasn’t about to let her boyfriend betray her too. Who did that bitch think she was, after all these years, coming back and stealing him away from her?

 

“Doesn’t that get confusing? Why not just use their actual name?” She feigned innocent curiosity remarkably well, so much so Izayoi was stumbling to form a coherent reply. Maybe...maybe now was the time to tell her?

 

No, no that would just be awful. It would tear everything apart.

 

“I just thought it would be funny. I don’t know what they put my name as in their phone either so...maybe it’s something equally stupid.”

 

Andou wanted to be sick.

 

“Well, whatever.” She said dismissively, maneuvering out of Izayoi’s hold, unable to stop herself from flouncing out of the room, much to his confusion. Guess he’d have to spend a lot of time with her to make up for disappearing today, but he was more than willing to comply.

 

He felt a little calmer about the situation now. So long as he kept things quiet and unsuspicious, he’d be able to be Andou’s boyfriend and Seiko’s friend without letting them two clash. It still felt somewhat traitorous, but he decided that that was what he wanted.

 

* * *

 

Seiko, however, was less than calm about everything, having been lying in bed since Izayoi left with her arms over her face, letting out a whine every few seconds.

 

Earlier was stressful, she’d almost lost the only proper friend she’d had, but luckily it hadn’t gone that far. Izayoi had decided to stick with her and that felt...it felt amazing. The fact he’d wanted to be around her was the best, but that was the problem really.

 

So first of all, he wanted to be her friend- she hadn’t somehow guilted him into doing it or convinced him through being pitiful, he genuinely wanted to be her friend, even whilst being with Andou. That was a start.

 

Next, they shared at least one interest. She’d been astounded by the collection of fantasy, fictional weapons and could only assume Izayoi was a fan of each franchise they belonged to. Video games, as a whole, was an interest they shared. That was also a very good thing.

 

But then he...he was nice. Seiko had learnt so much more about him over the past few days, having suddenly blurted out just what she thought of him but the more she thought about him, the more she understood. He was undoubtedly loyal, he was caring and he literally ran out after her at two in the morning just to bring her back to safety.

 

And that hug. That hug from earlier, she hadn’t ever expected something like that but having relaxed into his arms something slotted into place. Something she didn’t want right now.

 

It wasn’t like she could tell Izayoi, that would be the worst thing to do, but she had to tell somebody. If she kept it bottled up like that she was sure she’d break down. Maybe, if she talked it through with someone, she’d realise she was just over-emotional and that it was merely a misunderstanding of emotions on her part.

 

She grabbed her phone, flicking through the few contacts she had. She hesitated- was this a good idea? Whatever, nothing had been a good idea over the past week so why would it change now?

 

She decided to text Sakakura.

 

_ ‘I think im dying’ _

 

Very dramatic, but she thought it was fitting for her situation. She knew Sakakura didn’t spend much time on his phone, so she was surprised when he actually answered.

 

_ ‘put a paper towel on it’ _

 

She felt a bubble of a laugh in her throat, but alas, a paper towel would not be able to fix this.

 

_ ‘Ive tried that but its bad.’ _

 

For a moment, she imagined just...just putting a paper towel over Izayoi’s head, letting it flop down in his face. It was stupid, but it did well to bring a smile to her lips. Maybe she’d do that one day, just for fun.

 

Sakakura texted her back whilst she was changing Izayoi’s nickname on her phone to ‘Paper Towel Man’, laughing lamely as she did so.

 

_ ‘what did you do’ _

 

_ ‘I didnt do anything but its complicated’ _

 

She didn’t want to be vague but really, how else was she going to go about it. She’d rather ease herself into it than outright blurt it out...or maybe that was the best way to go about it? Rip it off like a plaster and get it over and done with.

 

Ah, but that wouldn’t work. She’d have to convince Sakakura not to fly into some kind of rage beforehand so he didn’t wind up storming over to Izayoi’s shop and blowing the whole thing up just to defend her.

 

_ ‘okay...so...what is it.’ _

 

She sighed, but it felt like nausea.

 

_ ‘i think im in love’ _

* * *

 

Izayoi lay in bed that night with a knot in his stomach and a lump in his throat, wondering just what felt so strange now. Andou wasn’t curled up against him like usual, instead sprawled out at the other end of the bed, fast asleep.

 

She was right here, he could reach out and grab her hand, hold her in his arms or kiss her so...why did he feel so lonely?

 

Not to mention it felt like she’d been a bit under the weather throughout the day. To make up for abandoning her earlier, he’d set up one of her favourite movies and they spent the evening eating sweets and watching films. She’d definitely perked up during that time, but right before they’d gone to bed she seemed to have dropped in mood once more.

 

Naturally, he was worried. Andou was always bright and cheery- she was the sunshine in his life so whenever her mood became dim, his life did too.

 

He glanced over at the phone sat on his bedside table. Would...would Seiko even be awake at this time of night?

 

Who was he kidding.

 

_ ‘you still up?’ _

 

He barely had time to put the phone down when it buzzed again- he silently swore, turning the volume down so it wouldn’t wake Andou up.

 

_ ‘no’  _

 

He smiled.

 

_ ‘sleep-typing?’  _

 

_ ‘dead typing’ _

 

He slowly shifted himself onto his back to allow easier typing.

 

_ ‘you’re being dramatic tonight. whats up’ _

 

_ ‘life's a mess’ _

 

He sighed quietly, but smiled anyway. 

 

_ ‘tell me whats up’ _

 

He waited longer than he had before to get a reply, strange since Seiko was usually so adamant about quick replies. She wasn’t the kind of person who would read your message and not reply.

 

_ ‘i can’t really. what about you?’ _

 

He knew he probably would do better not telling her, but decided to anyway.

 

_ ‘ruruka’s been kind of down today so i was trying to cheer her up but i dont think it worked.’ _

 

_ ‘she’ll snap out of it soon. idk how she can be sad when she has you.’ _

 

Though Izayoi didn’t know it, blurting that out was a total boner on Seiko’s part- she really hadn’t meant that to slip out but Izayoi couldn’t quite help the smile blooming on his face when he read it.

 

_ ‘i hope so. i hate seeing her so sad but i also dont like seeing you sad either. you sure you cant tell me?’ _

 

He thought he’d played that pretty cool- it was easier to act smooth over the phone when you had the chance to think about what to say.

 

Meanwhile Seiko screamed loudly into her pillow.

 

_ ‘maybe another time.’ _

 

_ ‘is it about earlier?’ _

 

_ ‘maybe. im happy we’re still friends.’ _

 

Izayoi gave the lightest of chuckles. Seiko really could be utterly pure sometimes, even if she did have a foul mouth sometimes or a sudden nasty streak, she was really something else under all that.

 

_ ‘me too. sorry about all of that. i just thought it would be better for everyone if we really didn’t hang out but that wasnt what i wanted i guess.’ _

 

_ ‘doing things for yourself now? you’re all grown up.’ _

 

He snorted. He still felt...selfish to a degree, because something like this could really hurt Andou and that wasn’t what he wanted at all, but stepping away from it would hurt Seiko just as much, which was why his only solution to keeping everyone happy was to keep it on the downlow. That much would be simple.

 

_ ‘coming from you, miss i-wear-a-unicorn-tank-top-to-bed-and-nothing-else’ _

 

_ ‘i’m too impressed you had the dedication to type all of that out to be insulted.’ _

 

_ ‘hey dont be insulted by it, it’s pretty cute. never pinned you for the cute type.’ _

 

If Seiko wasn’t suffering a brain hemorrhage out of pure, unadulterated embarrassment, then she definitely was now. What the fuck was Izayoi playing at, chucking all of these compliments at her?

 

She looked down at the unicorn printed onto the front of her shirt and flushed.

 

_ ‘i can be just as cute as any other girl. i just choose not to because it’s a waste of time.’ _

 

_ ‘why’s that then?’ _

 

_ ‘its too much effort to make myself look pretty. not like i have anything to prove or anyone to look nice for.’ _

 

It was true, Seiko often found dolling herself up to be an utter waste of time. In the end, she felt embarrassed that she’d even tried spending time on making herself look good when her strange personality would shine through and scare people anyway.

 

Besides...she liked how she looked. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t the prettiest, but if all the other stupid girls who made fun of her for it were pretty, then she didn’t want to be.

 

_ ‘you can always look nice for yourself. besides youre pretty enough as it is.’ _

 

Seiko actually felt exasperated at this- what the hell was going on here? He was...he was calling her pretty? He couldn’t do that, he was in a relationship! She felt herself sink lower and lower under the covers.

 

_ ‘are you always this flirty or did she spike your sweets?’ _

 

_ ‘im not flirting, im just saying you look nice. unless flirting was how you were taking it?’ _

 

_ ‘not in the slightest’ _

 

_ ‘liar’ _

 

_ ‘shhhh don’t tell izayoi’ _

 

She laughed at her own silly little response, but felt a bubbling of nerves. What if he’d actually figured it out? If he’d taken this all so seriously...that could really break up the friendship. There was so much to consider, so much that could potentially rip this tiny shred of happiness from Seiko’s grasping fingertips and she didn’t want to risk it.

 

For a moment, she felt like crying.

 

_ ‘i wont tell him dw BI’ _

 

She stared at the screen for an inordinate amount of time before realising Izayoi had sent her a face with sunglasses. That...was so like him it was bizarre. The need to cry faded away and was replaced with exasperated disapproval.

 

_ ‘wtf is that face it’s so silly’ _

 

_ ‘hey thats my face youre talking about’ _

 

_ ‘correct’ _

 

_ ‘yeah well your face looks kinda like (.)(.)’ _

 

Seiko laughed openly, letting the sound of her voice echo throughout her empty apartment. She wondered if Izayoi knew she was laughing right now.

 

_ ‘did you just send me a pair of tits’ _

 

_ ‘what no’ _

 

_ ‘wait’  _

 

_ ‘fuck i meant (.)_(.)’  _

 

Her laugh became louder. When was the last time she’d...actually laughed. Like actually laughed out loud, not a stupid little giggle or a muffled chuckle. When did laughing so hard feel so good?

 

_ ‘nice to see thats the only thing you remember about me. also my face doesn’t look that bad.’ _

 

_ ‘it absolutely does’ _

 

They both rolled over, curling up, eyes straining to read the letters on the too-bright screens of their phones. Though they didn’t know it, they both shared a small smile.

 

* * *

 

 

“You finally made it! Took your time, didja?”

 

Seiko nervously took a seat opposite Sakakura, glancing around at the diner they were in. It was a little too tacky for her taste, but Sakakura seemed to be comfortable; he was slouched back in the chair drinking a bottle of something sweet.

 

“Uh...sorry.” She apologised sheepishly, slipping into the seat- it felt uncomfortably hard under her, just like the rest of the place. She quickly checked her phone, before slipping it back into her bag.

 

Sakakura looked at her with a telltale grin. “So.”

 

“So.”

 

“Man, don’t get me wrong, I’m not interested in anyone’s love life but you seem like you’re strugglin’.” He commented, setting his drink down. Seiko let out a much-needed sigh, something she’d been doing a lot of lately. Sakakura definitely wasn’t the best person to turn to, he’d actually laughed when she’d told him what was wrong, but it was the only person she really had right now.

 

“I...I guess so.” She scratched her cheek, “I’m not sure what to do.”

 

“Yeah, I’m gonna be honest with you, me neither.” He replied, flatly, “Of all the six billion people in the world you had to go for him.”

 

“There’s...actually seven billion, roughly.” She nervously corrected, only to shy away at the exasperated glare he shot her. “Yeah, real helpful. Seriously, what is it you see in him anyway? He seems shallow to me.”

 

Whilst Seiko couldn’t deny Izayoi could come off as shallow, it wasn’t his defining feature. He was actually incredibly loyal, but she supposed that must look rather weak in comparison to the way Sakakura followed after Munakata.

 

“I...guess it’s because, um…” She paused, “We both like video games?”

 

“Are you takin’ the piss? That’s it?” He sat forward and Seiko was half-tempted to scramble over the back of her chair and into the booth behind her to escape. “I guess not.” She chewed her lip, “I don’t know, he did rescue me at one point...and he’s been really nice to me too.”

 

“Well you’re easy to please, aren’t you?” He muttered, “But I thought you hated him- you hated them both, remember? Or did that just not happen all of a sudden?”

 

“No, no, it still happened. I still can’t stand  _ her _ but she wasn’t around when I was staying at his house, so we managed to ta--”

 

“You stayed at his house?! When the fuck did this happen?”

 

Seiko then realised she hadn’t actually given anything for Sakakura to go on in terms of how the last few weeks had played out. There was probably a reason for that too, but it was too late to regret it.

 

“The other week, look, that’s not the point. He was looking after me when I got, um...injured. We talked a lot about what happened in the past and he genuinely believes it’s all a big misunderstanding!” She anxiously clasped her hands together, as if pleading for Sakakura to believe her, “He even said he doesn’t think I was responsible for the bombing incident!”

 

“Huh, how’d you manage to change his mind?”

 

“I told him the truth.” She raised an eyebrow, “What else would I do?”

 

“I dunno,” He scratched the back of his head, “The guy’s pretty much at that girls feet. Can’t imagine it would be easy to change his mind.”

 

“Well I did run out of his house at 3am wearing nothing but one of his shirts...I’d guess he felt obliged to listen to me after that.”

 

Sakakura opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it once more, before speaking, “Nah, y’know what? I don’t wanna know. Point being, you’ve somehow come out of this with a crush with the most minimal standard. I mean the guy could so much as breathe and you’d be on him.”

 

“That’s...not true.” Seiko frowned, “I can’t really put my finger on it but...he’s a really nice guy when she’s not around. I ended up yelling at him because he’s practically her puppet and I told him to start thinking for himself.”

 

“I’d imagine he didn’t exactly take that advice well.”

 

“He actually did, believe it or not,” Seiko admitted, “I mean...it didn’t exactly go down well for a while but I think he’s starting to see what I meant when I told him he has a life outside of Andou. I don’t think he even believed he could until I told him.”

 

“Alright, so you like the guy and he finds you halfway decent. That’s not such a bad situation to be in until his missus finds out.” He remarked, to which Seiko slumped forward, “Yeah…”

 

“Not to mention,” He added, “It seems kind of impossible when you think about how far he’s gone for her in the past. I don’t like the guy and even I know he won’t give up on someone when they mean something to him.”

 

Sakakura continued to ramble, but Seiko tuned out, only focused on remembering what he’d just said. He wouldn’t give up on someone when they meant something to him...that, that was very true. 

 

Was that why he didn’t give up on her…?

 

“Hey, are you listenin’?”

 

“H-Huh? Yeah, yeah…” She said, fiddling with her mask. “Sorry.”

 

“Eh.” He shrugged, “Not like I have any bright ideas but it seems like you’re really up shit creek without a paddle here.”

 

“You can say that again…” She muttered lowly. "Not even without a paddle, I don't even have a fucking boat. And it's not like I can actually tell him, anyway. If I tell him then it could just break the whole thing apart. I actually like not being totally alone for once.” She crossed her arms and Sakakura scoffed, but took no offense.

 

“Well, from my experience, you get over these things. Might take a while and it ain’t nice but it always happens eventually.” He shrugged, downing the rest of his drink. “Must suck when you lost out to her, though.”

 

Seiko twitched involuntarily. It wasn’t like she’d lost out to Andou, she was far out of the running before they’d even met, but it did feel disappointing. Her worst enemy was her best, and only, friend’s girlfriend. Wasn’t exactly the most ideal situation in her opinion.

 

“Guess so.” She settled on saying, staring intently at the menu propped up in front of her, but not really taking in the words.

  
  


* * *

 

The sounds of the running shower filled the apartment, as well as a thin layer of steam. So much for protective walling…

 

Andou sat on the sofa, legs up on the coffee table, staring at the ceiling. It’d been a day already and Izayoi hadn’t said anything more about his secret friendship with Seiko. Surely he’d tell her, right? Well, it didn’t exactly make her happy. In fact, she was livid about the entire fiasco, but not once had he alluded that he was hanging around with Seiko.

 

Which meant he was trying to hide it from her.

 

She felt angry tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. How could Yoi do this? What about all the times he’d said he’d never betray her? How he loved her unconditionally and how nobody compared to her? 

 

Surely he should know Seiko was pure evil- she was the reason they got expelled from the academy to begin with! She scowled. Guess stealing boyfriends was one of the many things that made Seiko such an ‘amazing’ person.

 

Why?! Why after so long, why did she have to ruin everything again?!

 

She sat up, furiously wiping the tears beading at her eyes before spotting Izayoi’s phone sat innocently on the coffee table.

 

…

 

He’d...he’d never know if she deleted the messages after she was done.

 

She looked cautiously between the locked door of the bathroom and the phone, before picking the device up and stalking towards their bedroom.

 

* * *

 

Seiko flinched suddenly, mid-sentence, as she felt her phone buzz violently in her jacket pocket. Sakakura watched with mild amusement as she fished the phone out of her pocket and sure enough, it was Izayoi.

 

_ ‘hey’ _

 

_ ‘hey’  _

 

Why was he messaging her now…? Was he out of the house or something?

 

_ ‘i have a few free minutes while ruruka is in the shower’ _

 

_ ‘oh okay. im with sakakura right now.’ _

 

“That him?” Sakakura raised an eyebrow and Seiko nodded. “Yeah. That’s him.”

 

_ ‘werent you scared of him at some point?’ _

 

_ ‘ive probably been scared of everyone at some point.’ _

 

“What does he want?” Sakakura leant over to read Seiko’s upside-down phone screen, not really taking in much from it. Seiko shrugged. “I’m not really sure.”

 

_ ‘well you arent scared of me anymore’ _

 

Seiko watched the screen carefully, wondering what to say, though she didn’t know that the statement was technically false.

 

_ ‘not after you saved me i’m not’ _

 

_ ‘i’d do it for anyone’ _

 

_ ‘so you keep saying. do you even remember what i told you?’ _

 

“What’s he saying?” Sakakura had momentarily disappeared, only to return with another drink in a recyclable plastic cup with a straw. He slurped it obnoxiously and Seiko frowned. “Not much.”

 

_ ‘sorry im kinda tired right now, i dont really remember.’ _

 

_ ‘you know. the thing about if andou was there?’ _

 

“What did you say about Andou?” He lifted the cup up, sucking through the straw, only for the lid to fall off and the drink to pour out of the bottom. He swore, dropping the cup onto the table- Seiko snickered quietly.

 

_ ‘sorry i think that slipped me by’ _

 

“Only that if Andou was around he wouldn’t have helped me…” She murmured, almost inaudible from behind her mask. Sakakura stopped his attempt to mop up the spillage with napkins to offer a quizzical yet suspicious look. “Helped you…?”

 

Seiko choked slightly, now regretting her works. “It’s nothing.” She shot back quickly, eager to end the conversation, but even she knew how futile that would be against Sakakura’s stubborn streak. “Oi. What happened?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

The phone buzzed lamely.

 

“Don’t lie to me, tell me what happened.”

 

_ ‘it was before we went to sleep. you really don’t remember?’ _

 

Had he just forgotten everything she’d told him? She could’ve sworn they’d discussed it multiple times too...maybe he was just exhausted- she would be if she was living with that witch. Actually, she was feeling more than exhausted at that moment, avoiding Sakakura’s intent glare.

 

“R-Really...I...I don’t want to.”

 

Sakakura growled, but held his tongue- whatever outburst that was going to escape him had been caught in fear of making the situation worse. He wasn’t really one for being gentle and caring but with the way she looked so pale under her mask suggested to him it wasn’t something good.

 

“Did you get hurt at all?” He asked carefully. Seiko paused, staring very, very intently at her phone screen, seemingly finding nothing else interesting at all.

 

_ ‘sorry i guess.’ _

 

He didn’t sound sorry. Something felt wrong here. The conversational felt…almost liminal. Like it was leading up to something.

 

“I...I guess.” She forced the words out of her mouth, hoping that Sakakura would understand and thankfully, he did. Sakakura said nothing, but sat back, inspecting what was visible of Seiko’s face. Man, if Yukizome was here now she’d probably be proud of how he handled that. Goes to show he wasn’t just some kind of brainless meathead.

 

Though it didn’t stop him from worrying. Seiko had always been the frail type in his eyes, unable to make much of a stand for herself. For a moment, he was actually thankful for Izayoi being around if it meant she hadn’t gotten injured too badly.

 

Guess he had a bit of a soft spot for the kid.

 

Seiko chewed her lip indecisively, a million thoughts running through her head a second as she wondered just what Izayoi was playing at.

 

_ ‘you do remember what i said when we were playing mk right?’ _

 

_ ‘idk its all hazy is all. does it really matter right now?’ _

 

Something was definitely wrong.

 

_ ‘what’s with you today? did you hit your head or something?’ _

 

“You look ill.” Sakakura commented, leaning forward to watch the way Seiko’s eyes flitted over her phone screen. True to his words, she did feel ill. Something felt real off about all of this. Surely he wouldn’t just forget what she’d said and what had happened back then, would he?

 

_ ‘i just told you im tired is all. Im ready to fall asleep on the spot’ _

 

She hummed, brows furrowed.

 

_ ‘okay, but at the very least you didn’t forget that we’re meeting up on thursday, did you?’ _

 

She took a breath, ignoring Sakakura’s intense gaze, though he didn’t mean to look so overbearing. Seiko gripped her phone as it buzzed weakly between her fingers and a cold feeling of dread settled in her stomach like ice-cold water.

 

_ ‘of course i didnt.’ _

 

She dropped the phone.

 


	9. Dread

 

Izayoi finally emerged from the shower, lazily drying his hair with a small towel. He eyed Andou, sat on the sofa watching the television, but she looked almost bored.

 

“You okay babe?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

He raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

 

Andou sighed, sinking down into the couch. “Course I am, Yoi, I’m just tired is all.” She murmured, lowly. Izayoi took a seat next to her, gently ruffling her hair. “Well...maybe we could do something to cheer you up. How about I take you out sometime?”

 

Andou’s lips twisted in a small smile. “Yoi would do that for me?”

 

“You know I would babe. How about that new restaurant that opened in town? Sound good?”

 

He lifted an arm so Andou could wriggle under and snuggle up to him. “That sounds great! How about…” Andou pursed her lips, seemingly thoughtful though Izayoi didn’t really know the full extent of the whirlwind of thoughts in her mind, “...how about we go on Thursday?”

 

“Thursday?” 

 

“I mean, you don’t have anything to do on a Thursday, do you?” Andou batted her eyelashes, looking as cute as ever- Izayoi had to smile. “Nah, course not.” He replied, “Thursday sounds great.”

 

Andou watched him for a few moments after, gauging his reaction silently as she stared up and into his eyes, before redirecting her attention back towards the television.

 

Izayoi wasn’t quite sure what to think. She’d been so down recently, it just wasn’t like her but hopefully this would be his chance to lift her spirits back up. Before he could smile to himself in a self-satisfactory manner, his phone began to ring violently on the coffee table.

 

Andou almost grabbed his arm to stop him from picking up the phone.

 

“Who is it, Yoi?” She asked, sweetly.

 

Izayoi frowned. Seiko…? Why was Seiko calling him now? Wasn’t this supposed to be secret and carefully planned? Unless she was being careless, something must’ve been wrong.

 

He hit the call button, holding the phone to his ear- Andou seemed to snuggle further into his arm, listening carefully for the sound of a voice on the other end.

 

“Hello?”

 

_ “Um...I need to talk to you. Did you text me about ten minutes ago?” _

 

“What? No, I was in the shower. Why?”

 

Andou’s grip on Izayoi’s arm tightened suddenly.

 

_ “I got a bunch of texts from you, or...I guess it wasn’t you really, was it. Whoever texted me didn’t know everything I told you while I was with you.” _

 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

 

_ “Is...she next to you?” _

 

Izayoi didn’t risk glancing down at his girlfriend, instead switching his phone to his left ear and wrapping his right arm firmly around Andou. “Yeah. Why?”

 

_ “I-I think she was texting me from your phone! She knows!!” _

 

“It hasn’t come up.”

 

_ “Like she’d tell you!! I told her we’d arranged a meeting on Thursday or something...she believed it.” _

 

“But we didn’t.”

 

_ “Exactly.” _

 

…

 

Izayoi was torn at that moment. The hell…? Had Andou texted Seiko whilst he was in the shower? She wouldn’t do that- she was overprotective, sure, but she wouldn’t blatantly invade his privacy.

 

Well...even if she did, it wasn’t so much of a big deal, was it? She always had good intentions so maybe she was just worried about him?

 

“Well it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

 

It...it wasn’t like anybody else could’ve come in and used his phone. Either Seiko was lying or Andou had stolen his phone and he didn’t want to believe either things to be true. What the fuck was he supposed to do about this now?

 

_ “W-What do you mean it’s fine?! This isn’t fucking fine!!” _

 

“Calm down.” He told her, playing it rather cool, despite the fact he was sweating on the inside. “Nothing’s happening to you. Nothing will happen with it. It’ll be fine, alright?” It was hard to keep the wording so vague, especially considering the way Andou was staring up at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

 

She beamed, though it could’ve had two meanings.

 

“Hi, Yoi’s friend!” She called over his shoulder- Izayoi could hear Seiko audibly shriek and he winced. He was literally trapped between two girls who held an insurmountable hatred for one another and was desperately trying to keep them away from each other.

 

“Uh. She says ‘Hi’ back.”

 

Andou tilted her head in such a manner it seemed theatrically prompted. “So it’s a girl?”

 

The sudden jolt of panic that shot through Izayoi’s body in that moment was more than perfectly worded by Seiko.

 

_ “Well, fuck!” _

 

* * *

 

“You didn’t tell me you were hanging around  _ her! _ ” Andou’s shrill yells echoed far beyond their tiny apartment- Izayoi flinched. This might’ve been the first time Andou had ever actually yelled at him and he didn’t like it one bit.

 

“I...I knew it would upset you, so I didn’t want to tell you.” He admitted, “There’s nothing going on between me and her if that’s what you’re worried about.”

 

“You think that’s all I’m worried about? It’s  _ Seiko! _ Did the last four years just not happen to you or something?!” She practically stamped her foot in anger and Izayoi swore he could feel the ground shake beneath his feet. 

 

“B-Babe, it’s complicated…” He reasoned, because to him it genuinely was complicated. He didn’t know where to begin to explain himself. “I...think those last four years were down to a shitty misunderstanding.”

 

“So you’re saying I was wrong?”

 

“That’s not what I’m saying at all. That incident wasn’t anybody’s fault.” 

 

Andou seemed to be progressing through thirty shades of purple throughout the argument, “What do you mean it was nobody’s fault? It wasn’t a blameless situation! She got us expelled!”

“She...she didn’t. It wasn’t exactly her fault.”

“So you’re siding with her over me, is that it?” She crossed her arms, as if to exact authority upon him. He crossed his arms back, but felt far less confident about the way this argument was heading.

“No, Ruruka, you know I wouldn’t choose anyone over you.”

“She lied to you, y’know!! She’s just trying to cover up what she did!” She spat, and Izayoi wondered if that really could be true. He let his arms drop in defeat. He wasn’t sure he could even win this argument. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to.

“It’s...in the past now anyway.” He muttered, dismissively. “That’s not the point!” She retorted, sticking a finger out at him. “So what else has been going on here, then? You did this all behind my back while I was gone!!”

He did feel rather guilty for that, but somehow, he’d expected this reaction.

“Has she been over here?”

He nodded quietly, and almost wished he could’ve lied in that moment. Andou was practically radiating rage through every tremble of her body.

“But it’s not...like…”

“But it’s not what?! It’s not what it looks like?”

He didn’t want to say that was the case but that was, indeed, the case.

“She...look, she got attacked one night and I had to bring her back here. I didn’t go out looking to strike up a conversation with her. I was going to kick her out the morning after but then we got into a fight about the past, then she ran away and I had to find her and-- it all happened pretty fast.”

Andou raised a thinly-plucked eyebrow. “You had to find her?”

“It was 3am and she didn’t have proper clothes. They got ripped in the attack.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, unsure of what to do. Andou clucked her tongue, “You sure you didn’t rip them off her yourself?”

“Ruruka, why the fuck would I do that? You know I love you!” He reasoned, “I’d never cheat on you or anything and I certainly wouldn’t leave you for her- you have to know that by now!”

“Because--because if you loved me you’d know she’s poison! You know I can’t stand her after everything she did to us!” Her eyes were now gleaming suspiciously- was she about to start crying? He couldn’t cope with that.

“That’s why I didn’t want you to find out. I was never planning on you two having to cross paths because she doesn’t want to see you either. You...you both hate each other but…”

He tried to sigh, but there was no air to sigh with.

“...I like both of you.”

Andou’s lips twisted in an ugly grimace. “You’re my girlfriend,” He began, “And she’s my friend. The only reason I wanted to be friends with her was because we shared a few interests that you and I didn’t. I never wanted to make you do something I wanted to do if you didn’t want to.”

She didn’t have much of a response to that.

“She’s already told me she doesn’t want to get in the way of us. We weren’t even going to hang out that much, just a few times if we had nothing else to do.” He shrugged. “I didn’t think it was such a big deal…” That was definitely a lie, this was one of the biggest deals he’d ever dealt with.

“You know how I feel about her! How could you be friends with someone who hates me?”

He didn’t want to point out that quite a few of her friends had offered negative comments about him.

“I’m not friends with her because she hates you. Besides, most of my friends were your friends. I don’t really get along with them…”

“Then why don’t you say something?”

Why didn’t he say something? She was right, some of her friends he just couldn’t stand, so why didn’t he say anything?

“Because...because it made you happy.” He straightened up, “Because they make you happy and I don’t want to ruin something that makes you happy.”

Seiko said it herself, if Andou...if she really loved him, then she would understand it was a small thing that made him happy. She’d understand that, wouldn’t she?

Andou’s expression twisted as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. “If you wanted to make me happy, why did you go behind my back to be friends with the one girl who ruined everything for me!”

He couldn’t respond. 

 

Any retort he had lined up had just vanished in a puff of smoke. He’d...really messed up, hadn’t he? All this time he did everything to make her happy and now, by being selfish, he’d torn it all down. He knew from the off that this was a bad idea, yet someone he'd convinced himself that it was the right thing to do. Andou didn't have to sacrifice anything for him, he wouldn't let her, but--

“I’m sorry, Ruruka.” He apologised, quietly.

“I...I don’t wanna risk losing my Yoi to anyone! Especially not her! It hurts to see you side with her after everything she did to me.” The tears were now spilling over and Andou was sobbing quietly, daintily wiping her tears away with her hand.

Izayoi couldn’t pluck up the courage to go and wipe them away himself. It felt wrong. It felt like betrayal, but to who, he didn't know.

“I’m sorry…” He repeated.

“You love me, don’t you? You promise?”

“Of course I love you, I promise I do.”

She almost tripped over, going to embrace him as she rested her tear-stained cheeks against his chest. “We can be happy by ourselves, okay?” She muffled into his chest. “We don’t need anybody else.”

“Yeah,” was all he could bring himself to say.

“Promise me you won’t go back to her?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and his expression hardened. “Yeah.”

She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. “Yoi means the world to me. If I lose you, then I don’t have anything.” She whimpered. Izayoi wrapped his arms around her shoulders, gently stroking her hair. “I know.”

He pulled his phone from his back pocket, holding it over Andou’s shoulder so he could see the screen properly. Despite the argument coming to a conclusion, it still felt like there was a sharp, shard of ice piercing through his gut and up into his heart. Had there really been a resolution? It didn’t feel like there’d been any closure for him.

He clicked through his messages until he reached the contact he was looking for. He stared at it for longer than he should’ve, knowing full well the more he thought about it, the more it would hurt, because each blink was starting to feel like acid and his chest felt compressed.

He blocked the number, switched the phone off, and put it back into his pocket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well  
> ...
> 
> fuck


	10. Inferno

“So that’s what happened…”

 

Sakakura sat back on the sofa, kicking his legs up onto the coffee table, but felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl sat next to him, curled up into a ball. For a moment, he thought she might’ve been crying, but she was dead still.

 

He glanced at her phone that sat offensively on the table. So Andou had found out about their newfound friendship and obviously wasn’t happy about it and now Izayoi had blocked her number too. That had to hurt…

 

It wasn’t like he could empathise, but Seiko had next to nobody so the sting of being left alone again was probably very harsh. She seemed so happy about it as well. If Munakata suddenly cut himself from his life without so much as a word, he’d probably be a little upset about it too.

 

And not even that- the kid had a crush on the guy too. That made it ten times worse.

 

“I don’t really know what to say to be honest with you.” He remarked, “It’s not like I can tell you it’ll be okay but it’s not like it’s gonna get any worse, is it?” Well, that was one way to look at it.

 

“Guess not.” Was Seiko’s sullen reply.

 

Man, he really felt bad for this kid. That other girl seemed to really have it out for her, too.

 

“Well...guess we should find something to distract you from being...like this.” He gestured to her entire being. He wasn’t fond of hanging around people who were continually sad about everything so the least he could do was find something to cheer her up. Not like he had anything else to do, either.

 

“I could go and beat them both up for you if you want.”

 

Seiko couldn’t force a laugh even if she wanted to. “It’s okay.” She replied, because deep down, she didn’t want Izayoi to hurt. Not in the slightest, so if this was what he wanted then...who was she to tell him no?

 

But...it wasn’t what he wanted, was it? It was what Andou wanted, and that’s all it had been about. She knew she’d never let something like this slide unless Seiko was cut out their lives entirely.

 

She wasn’t upset. She was fucking livid.

 

“Chances are I’ll go and...fuck her up myself.” She grunted, though knew she wouldn’t really do that. Again, her like for Izayoi surpassed her hatred for Andou and that really spoke volumes.

 

Sakakura let out a laugh, “That’s my girl. So, uh, how about we go and find something better to do than mope in your apartment. No offense but this place is a piece of shit.”

 

“Yeah, I know…” She dropped her head onto her knees again. “I’ll go grab my shoes.” She said, making no immediate effort to grab her shoes. “Where are we gonna go…?”

 

“Ah, s’up to you this time. Where do you wanna go?”

 

She eyed her shelf, where the MK3-shaped gap in her games collection remained.

 

“Video game store.”

 

* * *

 

Seiko had to admit, this did cheer her up more than she’d expected. She recently received a paycheck for a vaccine she was helping to develop and now would be the perfect time to treat herself, or so she supposed.

 

Sakakura didn’t really look like he knew what was going on. “Man, I don’t really know all that much about these games. Never had the time to play.” He scratched the back of his awkward, picking up a games case for a first-person shooter game. “They all seem kinda same-y to me.”

 

“Cause you’re not looking hard enough.” Seiko remarked, plucking the newest MK game from the shelf. Of course, she already had this one, but still…actually there probably wasn’t a point going back to it. Maybe she should play a different franchise for a while...

 

“Are you looking for something in particular?”

 

“Not really.” Seiko chewed her lip, gazing at the rows and rows of different games on the shelves before her. “Just having a look.” She might’ve actually had enough money to buy a completely new games console. That would certainly be a distraction.

 

“Oh, I think I’ve played this one. Didn’t they make a movie of it?”

 

“Yeah, that happens a lot. Most of them are actually pretty bad.” She glanced over at the case Sakakura was inspecting. “I think I liked that one though.”

 

“Hey, you like that fighting game right? The one you just picked up. I saw the movie for that one.” He pointed out, putting the case back. Seiko gave an odd half-hearted laugh. “Guess so. That one was pretty bad too.”

 

“I thought it was funny.”

 

Seiko absentmindedly picked off a Zelda game from the shelf. She didn’t have this one, nor did she have the games console it was played on- it was still pretty new and massively expensive and she didn’t always like to bother with wasting money on them. “Oh I know that one.” Sakakura pointed to the case, “I’ve seen adverts for it on TV.”

 

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be pretty good. I still like the older ones, I think.” She commented, “Well...not the old, old ones but the newer old ones.” She corrected, but Sakakura looked at her blankly. “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about but good for you.” He gave her a well-meaning albeit confused thumbs up and Seiko almost laughed.

 

“Guess if you wanted to treat yourself, now’s the time. Got your eye on anything?”

 

Seiko hummed, eyeing the display cases at the back of the shop, that held things aside from games: consoles, controllers, spare parts and other gadgets.

 

“I...I think I do.”

 

She made an awkward dash over to the cabinet, nearly pressing her face up against it as she looked up onto the top shelf. Sakakura strolled over, much more casually, leaning over her shoulder.

 

“Whassat then?”

 

“A gamecube.” She replied. “It’s...it’s a fairly old console- well, not that old, but--”

 

“Save it.” Sakakura waved his hand dismissively, “How much is it?”

 

She squinted at the price tag next to it, surprised by how cheap it actually was. “It’s ten-thousand yen.” She replied, rather awestruck. She could actually purchase this console and it wouldn’t be an impulsive or a stupid buy.

 

“You gonna get it?”

 

“Absolutely.”

 

She waved over a store clerk, pointing a spindly finger up at the console of choice. “Excuse me, could I get that one up there?”

 

The store clerk unlocked the cabinet, retrieved the console and led the pair towards the checkout counters. For a moment, Seiko was genuinely quite happy with the situation, until she felt her heart drop to her knees as she actually gasped out loud.

 

Of all the things, why did it have to be that? That familiar red coat and light-blonde spiky tufts of hair, jutting out at every angle. She didn’t need to see his face to see his slanted, piercing eyes to know it was him.

 

Yesterday had been nothing short of a disaster after discovering her number had been blocked without a word. Andou must’ve gotten to him, but what was he doing here? Shouldn’t he be back at his flat kneeling at Andou’s feet or whatever it was he did when he decided to make things up to her?

 

She felt her knees violently shake and grabbed heavily onto Sakakura’s arm to stop herself from falling. For a moment, Sakakura was perplexed- he knew she was prone to odd behaviours but so suddenly?

 

Until he, himself, spotted the same red jacket and for a moment, he felt livid. He’d never actually been that close to Seiko in the past but that didn’t matter. He’d fucked this girl over and damn right broke her heart and he wasn’t about to let that go.

 

“D-Don’t...don’t go over there, Sakaku--!”

 

“Oi!”

 

Izayoi didn’t immediately swivel to the sound of Sakakura’s voice- instead he lifted his head slowly, and craned his neck to look behind. Seiko had to physically hang from Sakakura’s arm, hoping her weight would stop him from charging right over.

 

“The hell do you think you are?!” He resorted to jabbing a finger in Izayoi’s direction and Seiko decided to scuttle over to the counter to pay for her console quickly and pretend like she didn’t know either of these dangerous men.

 

Izayoi watched incredulously as Seiko darted away from the conflict, feeling something heavy sit in his gut. She...was running away, but that was probably for the best. He redirected his attention towards Sakakura.

 

“I could ask you the same thing.” He retorted, “You like making a scene in public?”

 

“I couldn’t give a shit whether I’m in public, in private or on the fucking shitter. What the fuck is your problem?”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean? I haven’t even seen you since back at the academy.”

 

Sakakura snarled, “Guess today’s a bit of a disappointment, huh? Who do you think you are treating a girl like her like a fucking disposable camera? You think you can just drop her suddenly?”

 

For a moment, Izayoi’s mouth dropped open in surprise. He knew about what had happened between them?

 

“You know what’s been going on?”

 

“I know that and more, so don’t try and play dumb. Explain yourself!” He was about two steps away from picking Izayoi up by his shirt. Izayoi instinctively gripped onto one of the weapons discreetly hidden in his jacket.

 

“What is there to explain? In the end, it was either her or Ruruka, and I’m not about to betray Ruruka. Not now, not ever.”

 

“You’ve both got a shit-stupid definition of betrayal.” Sakakura replied, icily. “But I guess you didn’t have the decency to explain that to Seiko before dropping her entirely, did you?”

 

The girl in question was now practically hunched over the counter with her hands over her head, wishing the situation away as the cashier awkwardly packed the console into a bag, neither of them were quite sure what to do about the situation.

 

“Look, meathead, you really don’t get it. It has nothing to do with you either. Just stay out of it.” Izayoi replied, lowly. “Shut it, you blonde bastard!” Sakakura snapped, “You better apologise to that girl there before I mash your face so hard into that Gamecube you’ll come out lookin’ like Freddy fucking Krueger!”

 

“G...gamecube?” Izayoi glanced over at Seiko in mild surprise, who clutched the bag close to her and pointedly crouched in the other direction. Seeing her now was...unfortunate. He thought he could be okay with just letting her go but the twisting feeling in his gut was telling him he couldn’t.

 

Ah, well, it wasn’t like he had a choice, was it?

 

“Alright then, I’m sorry.” He shrugged, not sure of what else to do. “I’m sorry for hurting her.”

 

“Don’t tell me that, tell her!” Sakakura impatiently pointed to where the gangly, grey-haired girl was cowering. Izayoi glanced at her once more, but no words came to his mouth. Instead, it was a desperate, empty, sigh.

 

“I’m...I’m sorry. Sei--”

 

He didn’t even have to finish saying her name before she bolted from her spot and sprinted out of the shop and to wherever her feet would take her. Sakakura seemed to falter, comprehending the situation, before shooting Izayoi a nasty look that told him he hadn’t seen the last of him yet.

 

For a moment, Izayoi was reliving that moment- the moment she ran right out of his apartment and into the night and no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t help but feel like going after her.

 

Well, it wasn’t like Sakakura would let him. The guy wouldn’t let him within ten feet of her anymore and honestly...he deserved that much. All he wanted was to come and find a game, something to take his mind away from her and the nasty situation they’d found themselves in, but luck wasn’t working in either of their favours.

 

Defeated, he placed the game case back onto the rack and slowly trudged away.

 

* * *

  
The follow-up to that little event was a bit skewed- Seiko had ran in the first direction she could think of the moment she left the shop and it had taken Sakakura forty-five minutes to finally track her down. Eventually, he’d spotted her sat on a park bench, barefooted and staring blankly up at the clouded sky.

 

He quietly escorted her home and helped her set up her new games console, but she didn’t say a word in that space of time. In fact, she still had to speak, but she seemed at such a loss, he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

 

She did seem to perk up once they started playing- Sakakura, whilst he wasn’t exactly careful about what he did and said, pressed for Seiko to explain the game further to him in an effort to get her to talk.

 

“So...that freaky kid with the mask is going to make the moon crash into the earth?”

 

“That’s...the long and short of it, I suppose.” Seiko replied, glumly, “But technically it isn’t the kids fault, it’s the mask’s.”

 

“So the mask is doing this? Also why does the moon have a face?”

 

“Well I think the moon would look scarier crashing down on you if it had a face like that…”

 

“So why is the mask doing this again?”

 

Seiko occasionally let Sakakura have a go on the controller, letting him move the character around and throw some pots around, to which Sakakura found mildly amusing. “What can I say?” He commented, sarcastically, “I’m a fan of mindless vandalism.”

 

Later that night, Sakakura ordered takeout for them both as they continued to play the game into the early hours of the morning. Despite still being down, Sakakura decided that his work was done and that Seiko could take care of herself from now on.

 

And if he happened to bump into Izayoi in the near future, then that would simply be an unfortunate event for him.

 

Though he wondered what led Seiko to suddenly fall for him- it wasn’t as if they’d just met. They’d technically been at each other’s throats for years, with Andou there to fan the flames-- well, actually, it was more like she  _ was _ the flame.

 

But, with the flame gone, all that was left was a thin layer of smoke and an empty campsite. They’d actually talked out their differences, albeit with some minor moments, and emerged somehow better than before, until the flame returned, now stronger and more out of control than ever. The only thing that could be done was to either submit to the inferno or flee.

 

One gave in and the other ran away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q1. Who is going to fuck up Andou?
> 
> A. Seiko  
> B. Sakakura  
> C. Izayoi  
> D. Me
> 
> (ง'̀-'́)ง


	11. Afterimage

Izayoi didn’t sleep that night. He lay there, half-bathed in moonlight, staring dead up at the ceiling with a sleeping Andou under his arm, but for all he knew, he was completely alone.

 

He’d only caught the briefest of glimpses of Seiko’s anguished face as she ran out and it was burned into his retinas- he could feel his face recreating hers on that moment, though it was an emotion he couldn’t describe. In fact, it might’ve been the first time he’d experienced it and it was awful.

 

But there was no going back now, was there? He’d made his decision, though it was roundabout, and with Andou was where he’d stay.

 

…

 

Although....

 

No, it was stupid to even think about. 

 

He’d returned home empty-handed from the game store, feeling rather dejected about the entire situation. Andou had seen how down he’d looked then, tackling him into a tight hug, though wondering why he hadn’t bought anything. She’d shrugged either way.

 

“Well, it’s not like you need those silly games anyway. We can do something else together!!”

 

He felt a bit hurt by this remark- were his interests...silly? Was that what she really thought? Though all he’d wanted to do was spend time with her, wasn’t it? That should’ve been enough.

 

They’d watched a movie that night, but Izayoi couldn’t bring himself to become invested in it. He’d actually spent the time staring at the spot above the television, lost in his own world.

 

Lost in Seiko’s world.

 

He flinched suddenly, feeling the bedsheets crease beneath him. He was a fucking idiot for letting this happen. He felt as if he should offer a proper apology, or anything more to prove he was genuinely sorry this had happened but it wasn’t like he had her number anymore. She probably wouldn’t want to see him or hear from him anyway, and even though he knew where she lived, he probably wouldn’t get away from Andou long enough to see her.

 

Andou was now far more wary than before. She’d ‘forgiven’ Izayoi for the entire situation yet somehow, it didn’t quite feel right to him. Did...did he need to be forgiven? He’d certainly upset Andou, but was an apology what was right?

 

He wasn’t all too sure, which left him second-guessing himself at every turn. It felt like he’d acquired a completely new brain- a new mindset that had broken out of the box Andou had trapped him in, though he didn’t know that.

 

To him, it felt new and strange. Everything felt much more different and it was far more complicated to begin to explain things than before. Izayoi wished he could go back a month-- or go back to that day, take a different route home and never see Seiko.

 

That would mean he’d never rescue her.

 

He did more than flinch at the thought, he almost rocketed off the bed-- if he hadn’t walked that road, Seiko would’ve...she would’ve--

 

\--it didn’t bear thinking about. Whatever happened recently didn’t matter, he’d prevented the worst from happening and she was safe. Both Andou and Seiko were safe and that, he felt, was enough for him.

 

But really, it wasn’t. There was still a lingering in his heart- something lacked closure and he lacked a person he could actually somehow connect with aside from Andou.

 

Well...he hadn’t lacked it. He’d actually had it, he’d held it in his very hand mere days ago, only for it to be crushed and thrown away. How selfish could he be?

 

The back of his eyes twinged painfully and his jaw ached. There was no way he could sleep like this- the wound was still fresh and all he could do was think about it again and again and again.

 

He’d found a friend in Kimura Seiko alongside a shared interest that only seemed to bond them further together. He’d had fun, more fun than he’d had in a while, having both the company of Andou and Seiko.

 

And that hug. That hug just seemed to cement it all. She was awkwardly shaped, bony, angular and above all, incredibly...cold. Her skin had always been surprisingly cold, and holding her close against him made him feel as if he should do his utmost to warm her up.

 

It was strange to hug someone other than Andou, he’d genuinely never done that before and probably never planned on it, but she was crying, faking a smile and telling him to do what made him happy. He’d…

 

... _ he’d never actually experienced such a thing. _

 

But it felt so rushed, just why was he so upset over losing Seiko as a friend? He’d hated her for years and years, and all of a sudden it had changed, it had contorted and it had morphed into something awkwardly amazing. She was awkwardly amazing. 

 

She’d actually felt comfortable enough to go without her mask for some time around his presence, allowing him to see her entire face for more than he’d ever done in the past and there was no way around it, she was so strangely pretty. 

 

Her eyes were rather dead-like and grey, her nose was a little misshapen and her mouth was packed with braces that caused her lips to protrude a little further outwards like a constant pout and that, the sound of that just felt so ugly but it made Seiko and how such characteristics could make someone like her was so...strange.

 

Andou was perfect in almost every way, to him. She was cute, with large round eyes, perfectly bobbed hair and an air of cute elegance to match, though she could easily hold her own if necessary. 

 

Seiko was far from perfect, she was awkward and fumbly, as if she was a child in an adult’s body. She swung between quiet introversion and sudden explosive, obscene anger, to which Andou was neither of those. She was also strangely observant and articulate, as he’d come to understand as of late.

 

They were different in almost every single way, so why did he like both of them?

 

He couldn’t lie to himself at this point. He missed Seiko. He wished Andou had never found out and he wished things were back how they were before. He almost felt like marching over and claiming Seiko as his friend whether Andou liked it or not, because it was like Seiko had said, if Andou loved him and knew that would make him happy, she would compromise with him.

 

Why...why was he the one who had to be forgiven?!

 

He sat up, rubbing his eyes roughly. There was no way in hell he was crying. What happened to the old him? The cool, silent and stoic guy who loomed over Ruruka like a protective guard dog. Who was a man of little words, but much understanding- how had he turned into someone so confused and turned around? He, himself, felt awkward now, unsure of what to think or do at any given moment.

 

He was exhausted, he had been for a while now, but there was no way he could sleep. Maybe tomorrow, or the night after, but not now.

 

There was no other option, really. He had to get over it, and quickly, so he could resume his life and leave this hurdle behind, but he’d never had to get over something before. He was shocked by how accurate the cliches could be, because his chest genuinely did hurt, as if his heart was straining for something.

 

He got out of bed slowly, draping his side of the blanket over Ruruka’s small, sleeping frame, and padded off in the direction of the living room.

 

He switched on the television, letting it illuminate the room somewhat. He took the game controller from the table, sat back against the sofa and played the one reminder he had left of her.

* * *

 

Andou awoke the next morning, confused by the lack of an Izayoi-shaped presence in the bed. She’d assumed he’d merely gone for a drink or to go the toilet, but twenty minutes later, she decided to see what was up.

 

She slung her fluffy dressing gown over her shoulders and sleepily trudged into the next room, where she could see a spiky head of blonde hair peeking out from in front of the sofa. The TV flickered erratically, showing the janky images of the video game he was playing.

 

“Yoi? You’re up pretty early…” She yawned, straightening out her hair with her hands. Izayoi gave a grunt of acknowledgement but nothing else- Andou leant over the sofa to get a better look at the screen, before sighing.

 

“You got up this early to play a video game?”

 

“I didn’t get up.”

 

Andou’s eyebrows furrowed as she opened the fridge, grabbing a carton of milk. “What do you mean you didn’t get up. We went to bed together last night.”

 

“I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t really do it, so I was playing this to pass the time.”

 

Andou didn’t take her eyes away from him as she poured herself a glass of milk and mixed an overwhelming amount of strawberry milk mix into it. “How long have you been sat there?”

 

“A few hours…” He muttered, lowly. He didn’t want to admit it, but he’d been sat there for quite some time now. Andou took a sip of her drink, perching herself on the end of the sofa. “Yoi!” She chided, “Your eyes are gonna go bad if you keep staring at that screen! Why don’t you put the game down now. We could go back to bed!”

 

He didn’t put the game down, in fact, he wasn’t even paying attention to the game. His eyes were far out of focus, the only thing he could really see were the flickering shapes and colours, but that was fine.

 

He wasn’t about to explain it to Andou, but he’d been playing against the computer, working his way up to harder and harder difficulties, only moving up when he could beat that mode with ease. He hadn’t really thought about why he was putting himself through it- perhaps it was a subconscious desire to match Seiko’s abilities, though for what reason, he didn’t know.

 

“When did you get this one?” She asked, picking up the game case and inspecting it with clear disinterest. Izayoi didn’t respond, he didn’t even acknowledge the question because such a thing would be dangerous. He valued this game very much, Seiko had been nice enough to let him keep it and there was no way he was getting rid of it, even if...even if Andou wanted it gone.

 

His grip on the controller became tighter and tighter.

 

“Yoi? Are you even listening to me? I asked you a question!” She gently prodded his shoulder, before shaking it a little more roughly. Izayoi sighed, paused the game, and set the controller down. He rubbed his eyes roughly, experiencing a moment of temporary blindness where all he could see were afterimages.

 

“Dunno…”

 

“Dunno…? You don’t know when you got it? I haven’t seen it before…” She continued to eye the case, and Izayoi felt oddly irritable. Did...did it matter when he got the game? Did she actually care that much?

 

“Why, did you want to play it?” He asked, though didn’t sound hopeful- it was more of a pleasantry. Andou predictably refused, “Uh, no, that’s okay. I’m no good at them anyway.” She set the case down and took another sip of her drink.

 

“You don’t have to be good to play, y’know.” He pointed out, sounding almost hopeful, as if that would convince her. Just why was he so hung up on this…?

 

“I know...I guess I just don’t like them that much. Hey, weren’t you playing this one the other day? I recognise the music.” She smiled, at least somewhat proud that she could recognise that much. Izayoi sat back against the sofa. “Yeah...yeah, I was.”

 

He was tempted to pick up the controller again, still not feeling anywhere close to exhausted, until Andou pointed out, “Wasn’t that when...when you said you were playing both controllers at the same time.” Her tone was low.

 

“You know I was playing against Seiko.” He muttered. She wasn’t stupid, not by a long shot.

 

“Well, I guessed, but I didn’t want you to say it.” She pouted, but put a finger to her lips, “Still. What I wanna know is how she got out of the building before I got back. I didn’t see her at all. Just how sneaky is that girl?”

 

“She climbed out of the bedroom window and climbed down from the roof.” He almost felt exasperated, yet felt a comfortable amount of pride for Seiko’s escape that day, though the idea of her clinging to a telephone pole was admittedly hilarious.

 

Andou didn’t say anything, but looked extremely ticked off.

 

“I...I didn’t tell her to do that.” He added, hastily, staring at the screen like there was nothing else interesting in the world. “I was more focused on coming to see you- I looked around but she was gone.”

 

“And she told you after that she escaped through the window?” 

 

“Sure.”

 

“You’re awfully dismissive.” She noted, darkly, and Izayoi sighed lightly. “I’m not trying to be.” He reasoned, wondering why this wasn’t yet over. Though he’d been telling himself he’d really hurt Andou, he wondered if this was...really necessary? The little voice in his head that sounded eerily like Seiko told him no.

 

He was ironically alerted to the sound of silence, Andou had been silent for too long and when he craned his neck to look at her, she was eyeing the games case as if it were a cockroach on the floor. She looked like she was ready to stamp on it, too.

 

“Did...did she give you this?”

 

“Yes.”

 

For some totally inane reason, he’d confirmed it without missing a beat. Just...why was that? Andou would definitely want him to throw it out now and there was no way he was about to do that. He’d already broken his ties with her and for him, that was enough.

 

Would she compromise with him?

 

“Weren’t you supposed to give it back?”

 

The answer, appeared to be no.

 

“It was a gift.” He murmured, not quite sure what to make of the situation he’d landed himself in. “I like the game.” He added, for extra measure.

 

“Yoi,” her tone of voice was now oddly soft, in comparison to the hard tone she’d adopted minutes ago, “if you wanted this game, you know you could’ve asked me to buy it for you.” 

 

But somehow, that wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t about the game itself, though that was what he’d been telling himself for quite a while now. In actuality, it had been because it was Seiko’s gift to him, and really, when was the reason any different?

 

“You don’t want me to keep it around do you? Because of Seiko?” He crossed his arms, but not angrily. Instead, thoughtfully, and Andou shifted away slightly which was easily a telltale sign that he’d hit the nail on the head.

 

“Of course I don’t. I don’t like thinking about how she could still tie back to us since that day. I just wanted to move on and forget she ever existed.”

 

He couldn’t deny, Seiko caused her a lot of grief but in return, she’d done the same. It was a two-way street and it seemed like both of them were in the exact same burning boat, whilst Izayoi sat in a lifeguard’s chair with only enough time to save one of them.

 

“I know, but...a lot of it was just unfortunate misunderstandings, y’know? People being in the wrong place at the wrong time and stupid mixups.” He shrugged, but it didn’t seem to console Andou in the slightest.

 

“You...you’re still siding with her?” Her voice was hard, yet tinny and threatening to crack like glass- he flinched. “I didn’t say that.”

 

“You didn’t have to! Ever since you guys started hanging out, you’ve been talking about misunderstandings and accidents-- where was this talk back after we were expelled?”

 

It was true, Seiko had massively influenced his thoughts on the incident, but he thought it was for the better. Perhaps there really was a chance that Seiko was still lying, and that she’d tricked him into believing she was innocent…

 

...but he didn’t want to believe that.

 

“Back when we were being expelled, neither of us really listened to each other.” He reasoned, “We just...blamed each other because we hated each other- that was just all the pent-up frustrations from growing up together being unleashed at the worst possible time.”

 

For a moment, he wondered if Seiko’s strange skill of articulation had rubbed off on him. He hadn’t really given it that much thought, but saying it out loud like that out of the blue made sense to him.

 

“So you believe what she says?”

 

He didn’t have any other way to put it.

 

“Yeah.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come be friends w me on tumblr or discord @unavoidablekoishi


	12. End Of The World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i might revise this chapter cause the lining is pissing me off but i couldn't wait to get it out so fuckin uhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Andou had flounced off after that, apparently displeased with his answer, leaving Izayoi to stare solemnly at the television screen, clutching the games case in his hand.

 

What the fuck was wrong with him? Why had he said that?

 

Though it was true, he did believe Seiko and in this case, it would mean he’d taken Seiko’s word over Andou’s which had apparently been completely unforgivable but that wasn’t worth lying to Andou about. He’d spent the past three weeks lying to Andou, right to her face, the very least he could do was tell her the truth from now on.

 

Or was that selfish? He couldn’t tell what was wrong and what was right anymore. One was telling him he was wrong and the other telling him he was right and he had no idea who to really believe.

 

Yet somehow, he just felt...normal. Normal in an empty way, because though Andou had stormed out, he’d felt nothing. He didn’t feel as obliged as always to chase after her and make amends. He was happy to let her have her five minutes and sit there, but he couldn’t figure out why that was?

 

He felt far more confident, that was for sure, however…

  
  


….it was times like this where he could really use Seiko’s phone number.

 

It felt wrong to be thinking of her at this time, after all she’d caused this strangely growing rift-- or had she? Perhaps that was his own fault for going after another girl?

 

He closed his eyes, thinking back to being at the video game shop yesterday afternoon.

 

Seeing her again had given him strange butterflies, though thinking about it, they were probably more moths than anything else. It was hardly a pleasant feeling and the way she’d suddenly fled when her name left his lips really...stung.

 

It hit him harder than he’d expected it to. He’d gone along, telling himself that Andou was really all he’d needed, and at some point, that was probably true. He was no social butterfly, that was for sure, but even he needed something new sometimes, especially when it was something he wanted to do that Andou didn’t.

 

He felt rather stupid in that aspect- this entire situation had arose because he’d stubbornly clung onto something he wanted, throwing his own relationship and the feelings of his girlfriend to the wind and for what? So he could play a stupid video game?

 

And now he had the fist-fighting meathead up his ass about it too. Since when were those two all buddy-buddy now?

 

That didn’t matter at the moment. What he really wanted to do was find a way to bring those two within ten metres of each other, metaphorically of course, and not fly off the handle. The one way he could really see things progressing down that path was if he were to convince Andou that the incident really was just a set of unfortunate events triggered by some white-haired dickhead.

 

But really, what were the chances of that?

 

And as for Seiko, she didn’t even want to look at him now and honestly, she had every right to do so. Sakakura was right, he’d said nothing and just dropped her, what kind of friend did that? Even an explanation would’ve been decent but instead, he’d blocked her number like some kind of jackass.

 

…

 

He got up from his spot on the floor, grabbed his phone from the coffee table and, still dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and bare feet, walked outside.

 

* * *

Seiko didn’t get up that morning, instead choosing to mope in bed until noon. She’d had a nice night with Sakakura, playing Zelda and had continued to play long after he went home- it must’ve been so early, she couldn’t even remember why she was upset, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of her own giant moon on a collision course right to her, with nothing but impending doom surrounding it.

 

Therefore, the only thing she could really do, was hide in bed. It wasn’t the most active game plan but right now, there wasn’t else she’d rather do.

 

She flinched to the sound of a knock at her door, and sunk deeper down into her duvet. Her hand shot out of the warm expanse to feel for her phone on the bedside table- no new notifications or messages. Surely, Sakakura would have sent her some kind of warning if he was going to turn up so suddenly?

 

The knocking persisted and in the end, she forced herself out of bed and into her dressing gown, though right now, decency wasn’t the biggest problem for her. She slipped on her mask and routinely smacked her shin against the coffee table, almost stepping on the Gamecube which she’d totally forgotten she’d bought, and headed to the door.

 

She opened the door, and shut it again, because she absolutely can’t have seen what she just did. To her, it almost looked like Izayoi was standing at her door, half-dressed and looking beyond exhausted, but that can’t have been right.

 

She waited for the knocking to start again, as if to prove someone really was there and when they did, she swung the door open again.

 

It was Izayoi. 

 

Like...actually Izayoi. 

 

Why did he have no shoes on?

 

Seiko wasn’t sure where to begin, so settled for silently staring at his chest and it seemed like Izayoi didn’t know where to start either so there was a brief moment of total silence, but she had yet to slam the door in his face, so Izayoi counted that as a win.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Hey…”

 

Izayoi shuffled on the spot, his feet were freezing and sore after walking barefoot all the way over- why did he even do that again?

 

“Andou’s mad at me.” He began, conversationally. Seiko didn’t seem to react other than a mild, exhausted stare. There wasn’t much else she could say to that, being the catalyst to their troubles.

 

“I...tried telling her that you weren’t responsible for the incident. She yelled at me and told me I was taking your side.”

 

“So you thought you’d come here?” She didn't sound pleased in the slightest.

 

He sighed. “I don’t know. She stormed off and I couldn’t think of what else to do. I told...I told her I was siding with you, because you were right.”

 

At this point, Seiko’s eyebrows rose slightly, in intrigue. “You said that to her face?”

 

He didn’t exactly say those words to her face, but settled with saying, “Yes.” Seiko shifted to lean against the door-frame, wondering what would be the best course of action to take. Her heart felt incredibly heavy, but she couldn’t bring herself to shut him out again when more than anything, she wanted him to come back and that’s exactly what he’d done.

 

“Why, then? Why did you come back here?” Her voice trembled. “Does it matter that you believe me over her? Is...that supposed to make me feel better?”

 

“No, it’s...because...I wanted to. She was telling me to get rid of the game you gave me and...I know I dropped you because of her but I wasn’t getting rid of that game. It’s...it’s the only thing I have to remember you by.” He explained in a soft, yet somehow heavy tone.

 

“I guess she didn’t like that.”

 

“And when I told her I was siding with you, she just stormed off, but...I can’t lie to her anymore, I really don’t think either of you were responsible for the incident but she doesn’t want to believe that.”

 

Seiko wasn’t overly surprised, it did seem like Andou was really trying to hate her, but she had no idea why. Personally, she didn’t like Andou’s attitude anymore, she’d really clung to her as she was the only friend she had but in actuality, she grew frustrated with all her little requests and demands.

 

“So you came here because she got mad at you?” She was half-tempted to yell at him for everything he’d done but she didn’t want to. Seeing his face again was both terrifying and amazing- it was like her heart was filling with warm water, but that warm water turned out ot be gasoline and Andou was holding a match.

 

“No, I...I think I just needed your advice on something.” He replied, and for a moment, it felt like his heart was screaming up to his brain as the only words that strung together in his brain was  _ ‘I really want to see you again’. _

 

Seiko looked down at the floor. If Sakakura suddenly saw Izayoi here, she could guarantee Izayoi would find himself flung out of the nearest window and if Andou were here, she could guarantee that  _ she _ would be flung out of the nearest window.

 

Best to keep the windows locked, in that case.

 

She opened the door for him to step inside and he did so, gratefully, even though her brain told her that this was a bad idea and there were no redeeming features to this situation. She was technically forgiving him with letting him into her house and of all the things, advice is not what she should be giving him...

 

But, the heart wants what the heart wants, she guessed, and what her heart wanted was Izayoi.

 

They took a seat at opposite ends of the couch, like they had done on the night Seiko was brought back to his home. It was weirdly reminiscent, but the situation held much more tension now.

 

“What did you need advice on?”

 

He paused, before speaking, “Why am I so hung up on a stupid video game…? She means more to me than that, yet somehow all of this bullshit boils down to that one thing.”

 

Seiko sighed, sitting back against the armrest. “I would’ve thought even you could figure that much out.” She remarked, pointedly, and Izayoi grunted, “Can we skip the scathing remarks please?”

 

“Look, it’s not about like...the comparison of the two. The fact of the matter is, video games are clearly something you’re really passionate about, right? The same way dicking around with swords is something you really value in your life.”

 

“I guess so.” He replied, flatly.

 

“Okay, so when someone kind of dismisses what you hold close to your heart, it hurts you. The whole reason you’re hurt about it is because she won’t let you have your fun. She won’t try to get involved with what you enjoy and you’re conflicted about it because on one hand, you want her to make an effort to do something you like but on the other hand, you don’t want to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do.”

 

He nodded, quietly.

 

“That being said, you’re probably starting to realise you do a lot of things for her that you don’t like and you want to tell her that, so she’ll understand but...you don’t want to do that, do you?”

 

“No.”

 

Seiko rested her chin on her hands. “It’s not that you’re hung up on it- if you really wanted to, you could get over it, but you shouldn’t have to. It clearly means a lot to you and it sucks that she won’t try and involve herself with it.”

 

“She shouldn’t have to.”

 

“Of course she shouldn’t have to, but that’s kind of what relationships are. In that situation, seeing your partner happy by doing something so little, should be reward enough for sitting through something you might not always like. Besides, it’s not like that’s how all relationships should be. It’s just...sometimes, that’s the nicer thing to do to make someone else happy.”

 

Izayoi hummed lowly.

 

“And it’s pissing me off that she’s getting on your case about video games. She’s already gotten you to drop me entirely, hasn’t she?” She paused to roughly wipe her eyes, “You’ve done that to make her happy, so why can’t she do something small for you too?”

 

Izayoi opened his mouth, but said nothing.

 

“In the end, she just talks about how much it upsets her, doesn’t she? How she’s suffering from it all and how it makes her unhappy and it doesn’t feel like there’s much else you can do but drop everything you have for her.”

 

“I don’t want it to feel that way.”

 

“It doesn’t have to.” She shot back, quickly. “I don’t really care what goes on between you two anymore, but if you’re unhappy you should tell her.”

 

He didn’t say anything in response.

 

She crossed her arms, “I...I shouldn’t even be giving you advice. You shouldn’t be here.” 

 

“I know.”

 

“So why are you here? Why not get advice from someone else? Go see a therapist or something.” She muttered, sourly.

 

“Because…”

 

Somehow, something had broken and he wasn’t sure when it had happened or what it really was, but he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. It was probably rude of him to intrude and ask Seiko to help him when he’d showed little respect in terms of pushing her away and he wondered just what drew him back here again. He should’ve been at home talking to Andou and making amends but here was here instead…

 

...as if Seiko was drawing him away from Andou.

 

That was impossible, though. He loved Andou, no matter what, even if they were having a rough patch now. Things would be fine soon, wouldn’t they be? 

 

But it didn’t answer why he was here. He wasn’t really here for answers because truthfully, he was here for her, and even he couldn’t deny that much.

 

He’d thought too hard on his answers.

 

“...because I wanted to see you.”

 

Seiko turned her head away from him. How stupid was he? “Even though it made Andou mad? Even though seeing me caused this stupid situation?”

 

Izayoi hung his head. That was what he couldn’t believe. Technically, he was betrayed Andou and her trust again by walking over here, by being here, and if Andou found that out it really would be the end.

 

Was seeing Seiko worth more than Andou’s trust in him? How could that be?

 

“Yes.” He replied, quietly.

 

…

 

She slipped away from the armrest and sat beside him, tentatively pulling her mask down as she spoke, “You’re a real idiot, you know that?” 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

“And you realise by this, you’re...you’re kinda choosing me over her, right?”

 

“In a way.” In a way, that was true, though he didn’t like to hear it like that.

 

“So…”

 

“So…?”

 

Seiko leant down to catch a glimpse of his eyes. “So why me? Why did you want to see me when you have Andou at home?” He really looked like he was suffering, now that she saw his face properly. At this point, she almost felt bad for him.

 

“I...I don’t know.” He croaked out. “I really don’t know.”

 

“Why did you not wanna talk to her?”

 

“I think she wanted me to get rid of the game you gave me and I’m not doing that...she told me she could’ve bought me one but that’s-- that’s not what I want.”

 

“She wants you to throw it out because it’s mine and I gave it to you. She doesn’t like the idea of you enjoying something given by me.”

 

“Even I could figure that much out.” He muttered, lowly.

 

Seiko frowned. “Nice to see you could be stubborn about keeping that.” She said, icily.

 

“I...I’m sorry, okay? It was kind of spur of the moment.” He reasoned, but Seiko shrugged. “I don’t really care anymore.”

 

Well that was a lie, she did care-- she cared massively, but Izayoi didn’t know that, and now Izayoi felt slightly hurt that she didn’t care.

 

“I’m still sorry. I think Sakakura was right.”

 

“I tried telling him not to start anything.” Seiko coughed, uncertainly, and for a moment, they shared an awkward smile. It almost felt normal again.

 

“Are you going to tell Andou you were here?”

 

“I don’t really know. I don’t really think about what I say before I say it anymore.” He’d kind of given up on keeping things a secret, but it would definitely make things worse if Andou knew.

 

“She might even know you’re here now. She’s not stupid.” Seiko pointed out and Izayoi sighed. “Yeah, I know that much.”

 

…

 

“So what now?”

 

Izayoi sat upright, glancing over at Seiko. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean...you’ve come back here because for some reason, you’re...choosing me over her--”

 

“--only because she’s mad right now.”

 

“Uh, yeah, because of that, but...even though she’s trusting you not to come anywhere near me, you’re...still here?”

 

“Guess so.”

 

“And you still don’t know why that is?”

 

He shrugged, because really there was only one obvious answer to him and it didn’t feel right. “It’s not like I like you more than her. I love her.”

 

“I know you do.” She mumbled, ignoring the feeling of a stab to the heart. Several stabs, in fact. Perhaps even a gunshot wound or two.

 

“But somehow, you’re the only one I can talk to like this. Andou, she won’t listen to me. She won’t see it from my side.”

 

“Do you think you’ve done something wrong?”

 

“Um…” He paused, half-expecting this, “well...I know I shouldn’t be here when I told her I wouldn’t come here again, but...keeping the game? I don’t think that’s wrong...and having you as a friend?”

 

She held her breath.

 

“I don’t think that’s wrong either.”

 

“Neither do I.” She let out her breath, now slowly realising that Izayoi was actually back in her apartment. What...what was going on now? Was he coming back to her? Well, that wasn’t the best phrasing but…

 

“So I don’t know. You and I share things Andou and I can’t...you’re...you’re more accepting than she is. I mean, you were willing to let me drop you as a friend before because it would make me happy.”

 

Funny how she doesn’t do that, Seiko thought.

 

For a moment, Izayoi thought that too, but ignored it.

 

“Do you think she’ll let me keep the game?” He asked, almost hopefully, because now it really wasn’t about the game. It was the sentiment behind it and it was truthfully something he cherished.

 

“Only if you hide it from her and play it while she’s not around.”

 

He gave an empty chuckle, totally and utter humourless, because that may have been true, but he could only think of the fallout he’d have to arrive to when he got home.

 

“Is that all?”

 

“Don’t suppose we could fit a few rounds of MK in, do you?” He smiled down at her and she shivered, because things...things felt alright now. It felt like it did before and for a moment, she wanted nothing more than for Izayoi to hug her like he did that day.

 

“Seems like you have things to sort out at home.”

 

He murmured an agreement, before standing up. “Um...thanks for all of this. Sorry for intruding at a bad time.” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and Seiko desperately wanted to tell him that there was never a bad time for him to intrude, but felt rather anxious about it.

 

She walked him to the door. “So...what now? Are we going to go back to being friends or...is that it?” She sounded rather sullen, staring down at the floor as Izayoi straightened up in front of her.

 

“Honestly...I don’t know.”

 

She felt her gut give way a little bit there, as she clutched her arm tightly. “So...this could be it then?”

 

“It could be.” He echoed, wanting to say otherwise, but that would be making an empty promise that he might not be able to keep and he didn’t want to let Seiko down again. She didn’t like the idea that this could be the last time they could talk together, but at the same time, it was nice to have some kind of closure from all of this.

 

“I...really like you, you know.” She mumbled, quietly. Izayoi opened his mouth, then closed it, biting his lip. 

 

“I like you too. I...I think you deserve the world.”

 

For a second, she thought her legs were going to collapse beneath her like driftwood. For Izayoi to tell her that made her feel both sick and excited, as if she’d never truly believed he’d liked her before.

 

“You deserve the world too.” She replied, taking a daring step forward to look up at him. He wasn’t too much taller than she was, so their faces met at a tiny angle and she tilted her head to look at him with both eyes.

 

For him, seeing both eyes was...indescribably nice. Seeing her entire face without being hidden away behind a mask and hair, he’d always forgotten how nice she looked. Somehow, the braces suited her.

 

“For a moment, I think I had it.” 

 

It was a weird scene that was playing out. Both of them were hypersensitive of what was going on, yet somehow utterly oblivious to everything and both of them were stewing in their own frustrations. He watched as Seiko’s eyes faltered.

 

“I’m...really sorry about all of this.” He told her quietly, “You’re more than that.” though his words felt empty and he felt like a fraud for trying to fix what he’d broken. “It’s okay…” She replied, hollowly, but her eyes flitted over his appearance as if she was trying to memorise him as she continued, “But…”

 

She remained silent for a few moments, looking down at his chest. He tilted his head, “But what?”

 

This could very well be the last time they would talk and that was such a strange feeling. It was like when you realised that when somebody was dead, you’d never actually see or speak to them again. Forever. For the rest of eternity.

 

Eternity was a remarkably long time.

 

“I...um...should let you get on, shouldn’t I?” She sounded calm on the outside, but inside was like molten lava. She was yelling at herself to stop being a dick and do something, for once, just do something like the rest of the world doesn’t matter!

 

He gave a half chuckle, almost making an effort to leave.

 

“Um...before you go…” She squeaked, tucking the long lock of hair behind her ear, her eyes flitted back up to him as she wrung her knuckles tightly between her fingers. This could go horribly spectacularly wrong, but that didn’t matter.

 

It was a do or die moment, and in this case, she was going to do, or die trying.

 

She leant up, gripping onto the front of his shirt, and pressed her lips gently against his and for a moment, the world seemed to crumble around him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	13. Apocalypse With A Happy End

Izayoi wasn’t sure he even remembered walking home. He stood blankly outside the door to his apartment, oddly calm for somebody whose life seemed to have been thrown out of a window.

 

He refrained from touching his lips...had that really happened?

 

He worried relentlessly, feeling a tight knot in his chest because this time around he really had done something unforgivable, even more than breaking his promise to Andou about staying away from her.

 

_ ‘You haven’t betrayed Andou, Sonosuke...I betrayed you.’ _

 

That’s what she had said, before he’d left. Hearing his name come from her lips was something he couldn’t stop thinking about, but what was he supposed to do about that now? Go back to her?

 

She...she’d  _ kissed him. _

 

He knew he told himself he couldn’t lie to Andou anymore but she absolutely could not know about this. Not ever, it was far too dangerous, plus even he didn’t want to admit it out loud. Despite what she had told him, he still felt responsible and surely, the responsible thing to do would be the tell the truth, right?

 

Well, fuck that, he supposed.

 

But he wasn’t sure if that was even the biggest problem. Seiko had kissed him, as in totally-willingly-leant-up-and-kissed-him which meant she’d decided to do that. She’d decided, since there would be the possibility they would never really talk again, that she would do something she’d been wanting to do for-- he didn’t know exactly how long.

 

He knew, whilst he could be observant, he wasn’t always the best at joining the dots when it came to things like this but even he could see what had happened. 

 

Seiko had fallen in love with him.

 

The back of his eyes stung painfully with tears, but for what reason, he didn’t know. He should’ve seen this coming, they’d actually clicked very well without Andou and that spelt trouble, though he didn’t see it at the time.

 

Now he really was split between two girls.

 

There was only one obvious answer to him and he knew that was the one he would take, it was the one he had to take, but it didn’t stop him from wondering…

 

...what would his life be like if he’d chosen Seiko?

 

No, that was a bad train of thought. A train of thought he couldn’t believe had passed through his mind- as a teenager he told himself Andou was all he’d need and now...he never imagined a situation like this would occur and with Seiko of all people

 

He feared to enter his own home, paranoid that Andou would just be able to smell her scent on him.

 

He wondered just what Andou would do. He knew full well she’d always had problems with trust, telling him that ‘it’s fine to betray anybody, so long as you don’t betray me.’ but this time he really had done something irredeemable.

 

And that wasn’t even the worst part about it. The very worst part about it…

 

...was the fact he enjoyed it.

 

Even for a split second, he felt his heart jump out of his chest and not in the bad way. It seemed like he’d set the situation up for that to happen, after all they were stood centimetres away from each other, gazing at each other awkwardly. That was usually what happened before two people kissed, right?

 

For a moment he felt like he was about to cry. He’d felt a spark of something in that kiss with Seiko, but it did well to make him feel like shit, after all Andou was the only one for him, even if they were going through a bad patch.

 

But he felt stupid too. Was it really a good idea to keep convincing himself that Andou was the only girl in the world for him? Was that even realistic anymore? Of course, he still loved her, he loved her unconditionally, but it felt as if he felt...less than he did before.

 

Well, not less, but more toned down and that wasn’t a bad thing, but what was rather unpleasant was the little things he’d begun to notice and latch onto. He’d felt terrible for thinking it, but...was she really pulling her weight through all of this too?

 

And he could say that she didn’t have to all he liked, but in the end, he felt it would be appreciated if she’d returned the favour once in a while. It felt selfish, but he couldn’t deny that’s how he felt anymore.

 

He wondered if that was Seiko’s doing too.

 

Nonetheless, he held his breath and opened the door to his apartment.

 

Andou was sat on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, as the TV emitted a quiet hum of activity- a drama of some sort that he wasn’t overly interested in.

 

He went to kick his shoes off, before realising he...wasn’t actually wearing shoes. 

 

“I’m back.” He announced, lamely, expecting not much in return. Andou tilted her head slightly, “Welcome back.” She replied, but her tone was hardly welcoming.

 

The game still sat on the coffee table- he had to thank her for not throwing it away behind his back, though after that kiss, he didn’t feel so strongly about it. He gingerly took a seat in the chair besides the sofa, eyeing Andou with caution. She sat with her chin resting on her hand in her usual elegant posture, but didn’t turn to face him.

 

“Thanks for not throwing it out whilst I was gone, babe.” He said, gratefully, but the term of endearment was a little bit forced. Andou pursed her lips, “I very almost did. Lucky I didn’t, huh?”

 

How was that lucky? Izayoi wasn’t sure.

 

“I...I don’t think I was lucky.” He pointed out. “You shouldn’t be thinking of throwing my stuff away behind my back anyway.” He bit his lip so hard it could draw blood because this might’ve been the first time he’d ever been so...daring? Was that the word?

 

Daring or not, he had a point. Even he knew she didn’t have the right to throw his stuff out.

 

Andou was staring at him now with an odd mix of shock and rage, but it just seemed so blank, as if she was still registering what he had said. Izayoi felt...in trouble.

 

“The hell…?” She murmured, “What gives?”

 

“What do you mean ‘what gives’?”

 

She sat up properly, “I mean, what’s with the attack on me, here? You haven’t been in the door two minutes yet and now you’re having a go at me?”

 

“I’m not having a go at you. I’m just saying, you shouldn’t be thinking about throwing my shit out behind my back. It’s not yours to throw away.” He raised an eyebrow, wondering how Andou would react if he actually did start having a go. 

 

“I never said it was! Besides, it’s just a game.”

 

His eyes narrowed rather dangerously, in an expression Andou could easily recognise as ‘pissed off’. “Okay…”, he began, “I’m going to be frank with you. It’s not just a game to me, it’s a gift from someone who used to be my friend. It actually holds some sentimental value to me and even if it is ‘just a game’ it doesn’t make throwing it out any more justifiable.”

 

Andou seemed to turn rather red. “I really don’t know what you saw in her.”

 

“Clearly not the same thing you saw, and I know you don’t like her and I know she upsets you, but I dropped her as a friend for you. Surely, the least you can do is let me have this one thing.” His expression turned into something softer, watching as Andou seemed to turn away.

 

“I didn’t realise she meant that much to you.” She said, icily.

 

“You couldn’t figure that much out? I dropped her because you mean more to me than she does, you know that too, but...it still hurts a little, I guess.” He shrugged, “and it hurt her too. Massively so. I mean, I’m still at risk of getting my skull crushed by Sakakura if he sees me again.”

 

“Sakakura? You mean that guy from Hope’s Peak? What does he have to do with any of this?” Andou pointed a neatly-manicured nail towards him. Izayoi sighed, “I guess they’re kind of friends or something? He wasn’t happy when Seiko told him what happened, which is to be expected, I guess.”

 

“I don’t see why this is such a big deal anymore.” Andou replied, “It used to be so simple! Seiko totally screwed us over back in school and she turned into such a bitch after everything that happened! We both knew she was awful and that was that, so why is this happening all of a sudden?”

 

“Because she didn’t screw us over, at least not purposely. It was all a big misunderstanding and neither of us really let her explain that much- you too were so mad at each other to give each other a chance.” He pointed out, sitting back in his chair. “So I got the chance to hear her out and what she said made sense to me.”

 

“You trust her more than me.” Andou murmured, venomously and Izayoi sighed, “It’s not a competition, I don’t trust one more than the other. It’s just what she says actually makes more sense than just mindlessly blaming the whole thing on her.”

 

Andou didn’t have much to say to that- instead she seethed quietly.

 

“I know you’re mad at me. I would be too if I was in your shoes.” He admitted, “but...she still became my friend, and I was going to make sure it wouldn’t come between us. She didn’t want to see you and you don’t want to see her and that was how it was gonna stay.”

 

“I don’t trust her and I sure as hell don’t trust the two of you alone- what if she tries to pull something on you?”

 

He ignored the fact she actually  _ had _ tried and succeeded too, to pull something on him. 

 

“How incompetent do you think I am? She’s not as subtle or sneaky as you think she is, Ruruka. She’s so obvious and easy-to-read.” He explained. Andou waved a hand dismissively, “Alright, fine, but when were you going to tell me about it?”

 

“Never.” He replied, truthfully. Andou puffed her cheeks out, “Exactly.”

 

“It would be better if you didn’t know.” He shrugged, “But I didn’t expect you to start going through my phone.” He said, rather flatly, but Andou didn’t seem remotely shameful. “Well, I’m glad I did,” She pouted, “I don’t like things like this being kept from me. Shows you have a guilty conscience.”

 

“Yeah, a little, and that’s not a good thing.” He sat forward, resting his chin on his hands. “I don’t think feeling guilty about being someone’s friend is a good thing.”

 

“Are you saying I’m making you feel guilty?” Andou’s voice was shrill.

 

“I don’t think it matters if I am or not.” He said, evading the question quickly. “It’s over now, isn’t it?”

 

“Did you go to her house earlier?”

 

“What?”

 

Andou sat forward suddenly, “You heard me! Did you come back from her house just now?”

 

Izayoi felt his blood run cold. What was he supposed to tell her? Well, the truth, he supposed, considering she didn’t make such accusations unless they were clearly correct. He shrank back on himself a little, but muttered a, “Yes.”

 

There was a horrible silence for a few moments, where he felt utterly eviscerated by the entire situation. Andou glared at him coldly, her cheeks seemed to turn purple.

“Call her.”

 

“What?”

 

“Do I have to keep repeating myself?!” She snarled, “Call her! Call Seiko!”

 

Izayoi’s eyes widened in alarm. This was, in no way, good. He wanted to refuse, feeling one come to his lips, but feared instant death if he said so. Instead, he hesitantly reached for his phone. “I...I deleted her number.”

 

“Give it here.” She snatched the phone from his hands and he reached out to grab it back- she shifted away, as she scrolled through the call logs on his phone, finding one she didn’t recognise clearly, before hitting the call button.

 

Izayoi was half stood up, leaning on the sofa ready the grab the phone when he could, but felt a cold feeling in his gut in contrast to the hot sweat that layered his body. Suddenly, Andou shouted.

 

“You! I know what’s been going on!! Get over here ‘cause we’re going to have a little chat, got it?!”

 

He flinched, hearing what was undoubtedly Seiko’s shrieking voice from the other line, agreeing to her proposal, before loudly hanging up the phone. His hands met his face as he tried to desperately project himself to literally anywhere else.

 

“Looks like I’m gonna have to settle this by myself!” She stood up, stalking towards the bedroom. “You’ll see, Sonosuke, she’s poison!”

 

…

 

Izayoi wondered if that was true.

 

* * *

 

Izayoi thought he’d finally calmed down, until he heard a loud, angry banging on the apartment door. He regretted leaving the shop door open and, actually, seemed to regret everything when he heard Andou storm over to the door and swing it open.

 

“You. Are. The.  _ Worst _ !”

 

“Coming from you! You won’t even let your boyfriend make his own friends!”

 

“I’d let him be friends with anybody but  _ you _ !”

 

He sighed, sinking back into the couch. There wasn’t much point intervening, not when Andou had her own plans. He almost considered sticking MK3 on and playing to drown out the noise, but he'd probably get shafted by both of them for that one.

 

He gazed out of the window, was it that dark already? 

 

“You’re so lucky Yoi helped you out the other night- if it were me I would’ve just left you to rot!”

 

“Trust me, I know! Good thing he’s not blinded by stupid grudges!”

 

“You’re the blind one! You never let anything go!”

 

“You used me for my talent! You practically cheated your way through school thanks to me!”

 

“Like you were going to use it for anything else!”

 

Izayoi didn’t even feel worried anymore, it was just...empty. It felt like he was sat alone in a burning building and not feeling slightly worried by the consequences.

 

Maybe...maybe that wasn’t true. Maybe he was just ignoring the fact his relationships were crumbling around him because if he admitted that was the case he might actually start crying.

 

He tilted his head to look at Seiko and Andou, who were both equally furious.

 

“You treat him like shit! I don’t know how he puts up with you!”

 

“Don’t try walking in here and lecturing me about my own relationships! He’s the best thing in the world to me and I am to him!”

 

“Then why don’t you treat him like it!”

 

“I do!”

 

“Oh, sure you do. You call his interests silly and don’t make a single fucking effort to involve yourself in them, whilst he sacrifices all of those things to make you happy!”

 

“If that was the case he would’ve actually told me!”

 

“Or maybe he couldn’t because he feels like you’ll just make him out to be the bad guy!! He already feels like everything he does is selfish to you, d’you know how fucking shitty that is?!”

 

Izayoi rested his head in his hands. This really was the end of the world for him. He’d let this happen, he should’ve never gotten close to Seiko and he should’ve just agreed with Andou. Things would be simpler and happier if he’d just carried on doing that.

 

…

 

But he didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to just push Seiko away and he didn’t want to mindlessly agree with Andou on something he didn’t agree with. Where was the logic in that?

 

There wasn’t any. He’d really been following Andou around because he loved her more than anything and he couldn’t stand seeing her unhappy but now that was different. He couldn’t keep acting like her guard dog when he had his own thoughts, opinions and life to live.

 

He stood up.

 

“You two shouldn’t be fighting over me.” He commented, softly, but it was enough to stop their argument. Andou was clearly fuming and Seiko looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed to run over here and bollock Andou into next week. He couldn’t tell who was winning the argument and frankly, he didn’t care.

 

“It’s...I just want it to stop, okay? The past few weeks have been stressful enough without all of this shit.” He gestured vaguely to the both of them. “I don’t like seeing two people I like fight.”

 

“Sorry…” Seiko murmured, tugging her mask up over his lips.

 

“Yoi...you would tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you?” Andou asked, hands clasped together, almost hopefully, but her face looked solemn. Izayoi chewed his lip, not meeting either of their gazes.

 

“It...depends on what it is.”

 

“W-Why? I’m your girlfriend, Yoi! You can tell me anything!” She looked close to tears and Izayoi genuinely wondered if they were real. He wondered why he'd even think something like that. “Clearly not.” Seiko spat, and Andou glared at her.

 

“Sometimes there are problems you can’t always fix, Ruruka.” He shrugged, “It’s not your fault.”

 

“What are you saying…?” Seiko looked incredulous, “The problems you can’t come to her about are the problems  _ she _ creates!” She pointed at Andou, who ground her teeth menacingly. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

 

“That’s the whole reason, isn’t it!? You can’t tell her that you want her to put more effort into your relationship because she’s made you feel like wanting anything other than the bare minimum is utterly selfish!”

 

“W-What?! No I haven’t!”

 

“Yeah, because denying it outright is a bright idea.”

 

Izayoi raised a hand, “I...I don’t really know what to say. I just wanted a friend to play video games with because you wouldn’t and I didn’t want to make you.” He told Andou, knowing that it probably sounded so utterly stupid, as did most of his wants turn out to be in the end.

 

“B-But...why  _ her _ .”

 

“Because...she listened to me. She never says my interests are stupid or that I’m just overreacting. It could’ve been anyone else, really, but it just...happened to be her.”

 

Seiko nervously clenched the hem of her skirt. “I think it was just unlucky it happened to be me.” She agreed, solemnly, but Izayoi cracked a small smile. “I wouldn’t say it was unlucky. Just...unexpected.”

 

He turned to Andou. “And I’m...I’m sorry I broke my promise to you by going to see her. I didn’t know what else to do and she seemed like the only person who could set it straight for me, but she’s not as snakey as you think she is.”

 

“No...no I am.” Seiko shrugged. “I am that snakey, because I know full well the two of you are inseparable, yet I’m still here causing trouble by pointing out the flaws in your relationship. It’s none of my business, really.”

 

“Then why did you bother?” Andou questioned, frowning. Seiko looked down at the floor, picking absentmindedly at the skin on her fingers as she shrugged, “Because I thought he deserved better, but maybe I was just being biased against you. Not like I’m a couples therapist or anything.”

 

“You weren’t being biased.” He pointed out, “I mean, the first night you were a bit crazy but...you were being kind of rational about it, I think. That’s why it made sense to me- you managed to sum up all the things I couldn’t quite fit together.” He genuinely felt quite grateful for Seiko’s willingness to explain that to him, because emotions really weren’t his forte and neither were dealing with them, so explaining and understanding them were an another level entirely.

 

Though he wasn’t sure how long the quiet atmosphere would last.

 

“Are you hiding anything else from me?” Andou pointed at Izayoi, and Izayoi shrank back suddenly, not expecting the question. He wasn’t sure what else he could reveal to her.

 

Other than…

 

…

 

He glanced over nervously at Seiko, who’s eyes seemed to reflect his very thoughts. He swallowed thickly, after all, he promised not to keep lying to her.

 

“Yeah...um...I don’t really know how to--”

 

“Let me.” Seiko interjected, though not as confident as she would’ve liked. She felt her knees knock slightly, being pushed under Andou’s piercing gaze, “It was my fault anyway. I don’t really know why I did it,” that was a lie, she knew exactly why she had done it but she still hadn’t told that to his face.

 

“Earlier, before he left, I kinda...um...kissed him.”

 

It wasn’t as dramatic of an announcement as she would’ve thought, but Andou’s expression was more than enough to make up for it. Her mouth dropped open, but no sound came out as Seiko stumbled to explain before Andou could fly into an uncontrollable rage.

 

“Look, that wasn’t his fault, he didn’t betray you or anything! I just...I thought I’d never see him again so I kind of went for it.” Her argument seemed to falter towards the end and Izayoi was clenching his fists so hard he was leaving nail marks in the palm of his hand.

 

“You...I…” Andou stammered, “You  _ what?! _ ”

 

For a moment, Izayoi thought Andou was going to take a swing at her.

 

“Pretty messed up, huh…” Seiko murmured to nobody in particular, only for Andou to answer, “Yes!! This is the worst thing you’ve ever done! How could you?!”

 

Seiko paused for a moment. Well, it was likely she was going to die today by Andou’s hand so, whatever, right?

 

“Because I love him.” 

 

_ And I hate you. _

 

Izayoi did a sudden double-take at Seiko- had he heard that right? Seiko openly admitting it, for a while, he thought that maybe concluding that she was in love with him was a little too far-fetched, but no, she’d really said that out loud.

 

Andou was shaking with rage. “You _ bitch! _ ” She shrieked, “You’re actually the worst!! And you, how could you let her do that to you?!” She turned to Izayoi, who backed away suddenly. “I…” He stuttered, “How was I supposed to know she was going to do that?! She surprised me!”

 

“Well you were close enough for her to try it on you!” She crossed her arms, stamping her foot so hard the building seemed to shake. Izayoi was sure both he and Seiko would die today.

 

That was it, wasn’t it? He’d messed up so badly, his girlfriend probably hated him.

 

How could he do that to her? He thought he loved her, yet he let this stupid blown-out-of-proportion set of events fuck all of them over and for what? A video game? A friend? What kind of stupid reasoning was that?!

 

He felt his legs shake oddly beneath him. He wasn’t used to fear, or anxiety, or sadness. He wasn’t used to being put on the spot and he wasn’t used to any of this- he wasn’t sure if he could cope and the fact he couldn’t cope might’ve been the reason he couldn’t cope, as a roundabout as that sounded.

 

The girls’ shouts were more echoing than before, as if his head had been submerged underwater, yet they seemed to grow louder and louder and louder and louder until--

 

He just ran. 

 

It was all he could do. Run. Run away from his problems, at least for the time being, and find a place where his problems weren’t. 

 

It was cowardly and stupid, but after all that had happened, it seemed very like him. He was too weak to be strong in a situation like this. It wasn’t a fight he could settle with swords or calm words, it was just pure chaos.

 

He heard two voices before leaving the apartment, though to what person they belonged to, he didn’t know.

 

_ “Are you really running away? Fine!” _

 

_ “H-Hey! Come back!” _

* * *

 

 

There was something oddly exhilarating about running in a stressful situation. It was a bit like taking a hot shower and letting your troubles melt away from your body and slip down the drain, but here it was feeling the hot flush on your skin, despite the cold prickling of the night. It was feeling your lungs burn and your frustrations and emotions out with each heavy breath you took.

 

For a moment, he thought he could’ve been crying, but the heat of his skin was so overwhelming he couldn’t tell. He veered off from the main road, down a thin, dark alleyway, as he stopped to take a break. He almost keeled over, feeling his lungs convulse painfully and his stomach twitch so hard he thought he might vomit.

 

_ *click* _

 

He stopped, holding his breath for a moment, hearing a click come from just above his head. He raised his head, but didn’t have enough time to register what was in front of him before he was slammed into a wall.

 

“Hgh!”

 

He cracked open an eye, feeling his head throb painfully, only to be met with the sight of a man, two-- no, three men, before him, all carrying weapons. He looked down the barrel of the gun pointed at him, wondering just what the fuck was going on before it actually sunk it.

 

He was going to die.

 

How could he have been so stupid to leave his weapons behind? If he had any means of offense, he could’ve taken these guys out before they had a chance to draw their weapons.

 

A gun? Really? He couldn’t do much else than stay dead still- even he wasn’t stupid enough to go against a guy with a gun with no means of protection. He swallowed, shaking ever so slightly as the cold began to seep in.

 

When did it start raining?

 

The men exchanged a few words, which he didn’t hear. In fact, he couldn’t hear anything, everything sounded so dull and hazy he was having a hard time comprehending anything aside from the fact it was very likely he wasn’t going to get out of this alive.

 

He was actually going to die.

 

He’d never really feared death, not when he had Andou with him, but now he was so painfully alone. Surely, Andou would come after him, wouldn’t she? She was bound to, and then, maybe then would he accept his fate.

 

If he had her with him, if she came after him, he’d know she loved him, and he loved her too.

 

He closed his eyes, hearing vague shouting, but he was unable to respond. The man drew back and whacked him across the bridge of his nose with the butt of the gun. He winced, coughing, as a thick trail of blood began to drip down his nose.

 

He’d grown so used to pain, it never bothered him much. He could take several hundred hits easy, so...why was he suddenly unable to cope? He used to think physical pain was much worse than any kind of emotional stress, but now, he supposed not.

 

If anything, it hurt more than anything physical and that was something he didn’t like.

 

He slumped down against the wall, feeling dizzy from the previous hit. The brick wall behind him scraped painful across his back as his feet began to slip on the wet concrete.

 

He choked slightly as the gun lowered back down to deliver another swift, yet painful crack across his forehead, causing him to slump down to the ground. The world around him seemed to sway, through the blood in his eyes.

 

He could hear another distinct clicking noise, feeling the oddly hot metal being pushed against his smarting forehead.

 

Well...it was fun while it lasted, he supposed.

 

…

 

He waited for darkness, but it never came.

 

Instead, moments later, the man in front of him fell forwards, into the wall behind him. He painfully shifted away to avoid being crushed by the weight of the assailant, wiping the blood from his eyes in an attempt to see what was going on.

 

The man on the right dropped suddenly too, making a desperate attempt to crawl away as the third man just ran for it. He leant forward, resting on his hands as the rain did well to cool his burning wounds.

 

He looked up, not sure of what he was expecting, but for a second, he was sure he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

 

He grunted slightly, feeling a cough rise in his throat as a pair of hands grabbed his chest and a pair of lips smashed sloppily onto his.

 

He would never deny, but the feeling of metal braces on his tongue was the best thing he’d ever felt in his life. He couldn’t tell if the tears on his cheeks were his or Seiko’s.

 

A million thoughts and questions were running through his head, but for the time being, they’d have to wait until Seiko was done. He smiled against her lips and she gave a choked sob.

 

“S-mph….Seiko…”

 

She sniffed. “You...you’re so stupid for running away like that! You could’ve died!” She screeched, clinging desperately to his wet shirt- he wrapped his arms around her neck and pulled her close.

 

“I think I would’ve been okay with the Ultimate Pharmacist by my side.” He joked, only for Seiko to deadpan, “There isn’t a cure for death you moron.”

 

He laughed for what felt like the first time in forever. There was no lingering guilt, no fear and no stress piled up on him and maybe later, maybe tomorrow, he’d have to deal with the consequences, but for now, it all felt okay.

 

He swallowed what could’ve possibly been blood, before pulling away to press a gentle kiss against Seiko’s lips. She jumped, before shuddering slightly, nervously melting into the kiss. The rain begun to grow heavy upon them.

 

She’d saved his life.

 

“I’m sorry...about causing all of this.” She croaked, pressing her face into the crook of his neck as he gently ran his fingers through her hair, noting the appearance of the hookswords he’d made her lying on the floor. He smiled widely, feeling pride bubble in his chest.

 

“It’s not your fault.” He told her, softly. “I promise, it’s not.”

 

“I shouldn’t have told her. She was livid, y’know…” She murmured, almost sadly. “I don’t blame her.” He replied, knowing how much it must’ve hurt, because he had, without a doubt, fucked up. “I didn’t expect you to fall for me.”

 

“Neither did I.”

 

The rain was deafening now but neither of them made an attempt to move.

 

“So...what now?” Seiko wondered, slightly fearful for the future, as she savoured the feeling of resting her head against Izayoi’s shoulder. He shrugged. “I’m...not sure.”

 

“Does this mean you’re going to have to choose between the two of us?” 

 

“I...I guess it does.” He said, with uncertainty, though he wondered what he was going to do.

 

Well, he wasn’t really. Deep down, he already held the answer but the situation unnerved him. He didn’t like the idea of choosing between people, especially those he loved. It left a horribly empty feeling in his chest.

 

Because wouldn’t that mean losing someone? It would mean having a chunk of your life ripped out and archived into the past, never to be relived again. That kind of finality was actually rather horrifying. It felt like something that mattered so much actually meant very little in the course of life.

 

He looked down at Seiko, who was chewing at her lip, deep in thought, but the crease in her forehead showed she was concerned about something and it wasn’t hard to guess what.

 

…

 

Of all the people to come to his aid, why was it Seiko?

 

He looked up and around, there wasn’t another person in sight and the splatters of blood from a shallow wound was the only proof that those men had been anywhere near here.

 

Where was Andou?

 

It...it kind of told him all, really, didn’t it?

 

He felt like something heavy had been dropped.

 

“Seiko.”

 

She tilted her head to meet his gaze, to which he gently wiped what remained of her tears away from her cheeks as their lips locked. Even for the fourth or fifth time, the novelty hadn’t worn off and it still left his heart beating like crazy...or maybe that was just the adrenaline of a near-death experience.

 

Seiko’s mouth stretched out into an odd smile, as if she was unsure of whether or not to be happy, until she started laughing-- or was she crying? Or maybe it was both. Nonetheless, Izayoi was more preoccupied by the rough tackling to the concrete he’d just received.

 

“N...not to be needy here…” he groaned, “but my head is still kind of bleeding in two places. You wouldn’t have something to fix that up would you?”

 

“I could kiss it better for you.” She suggested slyly, to which he hummed as if considering the option. “Hm...as sweet as that is, it’s probably the reason you aren’t a doctor.”

 

He laughed croakily as she slapped him on the shoulder. “Rude.”

 

“Well, you love me really.”

 

“Of course I do, I told you that earlier.” She poked his cheek, making a rather strange expression of disapproval. Izayoi shrugged, eyes drifting from her legs up to her chest up to her face, taking in the entirety of her figure.

 

“Never had the chance to say it back, did I?”

 

She froze, mouth open, before speaking. “Um...what do you mean?” She eyed him carefully, wringing the water from her gloves but to no avail. He paused, wondering if this was a good idea.

 

Well of course it wasn’t a good idea. When had any of his ideas been good over the past week?

 

He snaked his arm around her waist, smiling softly in such a way Seiko hadn’t seen before and she felt...lucky. Like the luckiest girl in the world and she vowed to text Sakakura and tell him not to kill on sight if he bumped into Izayoi in the future.

 

“What do you think I mean?”

 

“I...uh….um, I...don’t know?”

 

He smiled, genuine and warm, even though it felt like his life up until now had just crumbled away, but that was how it went, right?

 

_ “It means, I love you too.” _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm actually not totally happy with this but at the same time i'm so fucking happy with this
> 
> they did the thing you guys its a happy ending all around
> 
> (now expect a cute little epilogue to finish >v O)


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